- Email: [email protected]
Autism: Diagnosis, current research and management
This book 1s meant to present an up-to-date psrspecttve on theory and research related to Important Jnd widely used personality constructs: it IS intended for advanced level students. and as a source book for professional psychologists. It gives an up-to-date survey of theory and research tn what the tdttor considers the most widely used personaltty dimensions. i.e. achievement motivatton. authoritartanism. introversion-extraversion. internal-external control. dogmatism. approval motivatton. and sex dtfferences. The choice is a little idiosyncrattc-what about neuroticism;annisty. for instance. but the topics chosen arc certatnly worthy of discussion and are well discussed on the whole. The book would be useful to anyone interested in these areas but not entirely up-to-date as far as the more recent studtes in these fields arc concerned. The book 1s pleasantly produced and for the most part well wrttten. It serves its purpose well H
J. E~SF~CI;
Here comes the West Coast view of autism. California has embraced this subJect with wholehearted enthustasm and has produced a recognisable brand of theory: it’s eclecttc. It‘s therapy-ortentated. it’s biologtcal! This book contains the papers of a seminar on autism at UCLA which brought together people from various disciplines all involved with autistic children. not least the parents. The papers convey something of the enthusiasm that must have been present at thts meeting. and this makes them generally easy to read. There are 3 main sections. The first deals with medical and psychological assessment and contains a very nice chapter on audiological assessment by Lowell. The techniques are well described. useful to know about and could be applied to any problem child. The psychological assessment chapters by Freeman and Ritvo. and by Flaharty seem rather shallow and naive, in th 5 sense that they present what should be standard clinical practice as a novel approach. It may well be that the routine assessment tn places is so poor that some basic principles hare to be spelled out and the procedures have to be made explicit. Thus perhaps. one could look at them as initial guidelines for a more sensttive approach to diagnosis. However, there are also some extraordinarily unsophisticated statements about the concept of 1.Q. testing and about the distribution of intelligence in autistic children. Readers would be well advised to consult more specialised books on this topic. The second section presents research. mainly a biological nature. Since such work is not readily accesstble rlsewherc. these chapters are especially useful. However. they show very clearly that electrophysiological and biochemical research so far have little to contribute towards an etiology of autism. The paper by Yuwiler. Geller and Ritvo is very honest in admitting this. The paper by Fish on pharmacotherapy is equally honest and is of much greater practical significance. It makes one understand the trial and error processes that are necessary in this field. An important comparative study on the language of autistic and dysphasic children is provided by Baker, Cantwell. Rutter and Bartak. This chapter presents some new and surprising observations of speech in a normal situatton at home. between mother and child, which challenges some current conceptions of autistic language deficit. The third and largest section is taken up by papers on operant and educational therapy programs as well as management in the community. There is much detailed informatton of work that is however mostly at a preliminary stage and based on relatively few cases. Very interesting is Frankel’s account of experimental studies in the classroom which showed for example that food reinforcement does not always increase desirable behaviour over verbal reinforcement. and points out how unsuitable a global package therapy program would be. that was not specifically designed for the individual child. Other chapters also provtde concrete examples and explicit instructions. IMuch of this comes across as if one was visiting schools or Institutes. where one could see exactly how things were done. without the shroud of pseudo-professional mystery. Therefore, thts book might be especially useful for parents and people who have to deal from day to day wtth autistic children and adolescents. In the chapters on operant analysis and intervention by Frankel. Tymchuk and the Interested layman can learn Simmons. and on parents as para-professionals by Freeman and Ritvo. exactly what ‘reinforcement’ and ‘exttnction’ mean in the context of treatment programs. Israel’s chapter on the particular methods applied at a private institute reads too much like a typical advsertisement. The success story of Billy makes nice reading. but one wonders how many false hopes it will raise. However, it is to the credit of this chapter and to the book as a whole that it emphasises that most autistic adults, far from emerging ‘cured’ will need to live in a sheltered community, and that provision for this will be needed. Many of the discussions on therapy. training and management are written in the true American spirit of “what can be done about it” and “lets get on with It”. Thts IS m sharp contrast to the generally poor state of our theoretical knowledge oi autism. The fact that this book has a largely optimistic tlavour cannot be derived from success in treatment or success in explatning the causes of autism, but must be derived Parents mainly from the progress in attitudes toward autism. The concept has at least been demystitied. can now get understanding and help: they now are no longer left in the dark about the potenttal development of their autistic child: they are no longer blamed for having caused autrstic withdrawal: and they are given practical advice in carrying out training programs at home.
of
UTA FRITH
J. E~SF~CI;
Here comes the West Coast view of autism. California has embraced this subJect with wholehearted enthustasm and has produced a recognisable brand of theory: it’s eclecttc. It‘s therapy-ortentated. it’s biologtcal! This book contains the papers of a seminar on autism at UCLA which brought together people from various disciplines all involved with autistic children. not least the parents. The papers convey something of the enthusiasm that must have been present at thts meeting. and this makes them generally easy to read. There are 3 main sections. The first deals with medical and psychological assessment and contains a very nice chapter on audiological assessment by Lowell. The techniques are well described. useful to know about and could be applied to any problem child. The psychological assessment chapters by Freeman and Ritvo. and by Flaharty seem rather shallow and naive, in th 5 sense that they present what should be standard clinical practice as a novel approach. It may well be that the routine assessment tn places is so poor that some basic principles hare to be spelled out and the procedures have to be made explicit. Thus perhaps. one could look at them as initial guidelines for a more sensttive approach to diagnosis. However, there are also some extraordinarily unsophisticated statements about the concept of 1.Q. testing and about the distribution of intelligence in autistic children. Readers would be well advised to consult more specialised books on this topic. The second section presents research. mainly a biological nature. Since such work is not readily accesstble rlsewherc. these chapters are especially useful. However. they show very clearly that electrophysiological and biochemical research so far have little to contribute towards an etiology of autism. The paper by Yuwiler. Geller and Ritvo is very honest in admitting this. The paper by Fish on pharmacotherapy is equally honest and is of much greater practical significance. It makes one understand the trial and error processes that are necessary in this field. An important comparative study on the language of autistic and dysphasic children is provided by Baker, Cantwell. Rutter and Bartak. This chapter presents some new and surprising observations of speech in a normal situatton at home. between mother and child, which challenges some current conceptions of autistic language deficit. The third and largest section is taken up by papers on operant and educational therapy programs as well as management in the community. There is much detailed informatton of work that is however mostly at a preliminary stage and based on relatively few cases. Very interesting is Frankel’s account of experimental studies in the classroom which showed for example that food reinforcement does not always increase desirable behaviour over verbal reinforcement. and points out how unsuitable a global package therapy program would be. that was not specifically designed for the individual child. Other chapters also provtde concrete examples and explicit instructions. IMuch of this comes across as if one was visiting schools or Institutes. where one could see exactly how things were done. without the shroud of pseudo-professional mystery. Therefore, thts book might be especially useful for parents and people who have to deal from day to day wtth autistic children and adolescents. In the chapters on operant analysis and intervention by Frankel. Tymchuk and the Interested layman can learn Simmons. and on parents as para-professionals by Freeman and Ritvo. exactly what ‘reinforcement’ and ‘exttnction’ mean in the context of treatment programs. Israel’s chapter on the particular methods applied at a private institute reads too much like a typical advsertisement. The success story of Billy makes nice reading. but one wonders how many false hopes it will raise. However, it is to the credit of this chapter and to the book as a whole that it emphasises that most autistic adults, far from emerging ‘cured’ will need to live in a sheltered community, and that provision for this will be needed. Many of the discussions on therapy. training and management are written in the true American spirit of “what can be done about it” and “lets get on with It”. Thts IS m sharp contrast to the generally poor state of our theoretical knowledge oi autism. The fact that this book has a largely optimistic tlavour cannot be derived from success in treatment or success in explatning the causes of autism, but must be derived Parents mainly from the progress in attitudes toward autism. The concept has at least been demystitied. can now get understanding and help: they now are no longer left in the dark about the potenttal development of their autistic child: they are no longer blamed for having caused autrstic withdrawal: and they are given practical advice in carrying out training programs at home.
of
UTA FRITH