- Email: [email protected]
Teaching activities for autistic children
BOOK REVIEWS
495
E. SCHOPLER, M. LANSING and L. WATERS: Teaching Activitiesfor Autistic Children. University Park Press, Baltimore, Md. (1983). 258 pages. £54.00. This volume is the third in a series dealing with individualized assessment and treatment for autistic and developmentally disabled children. It covers a wide range of teaching activities, specifically designed for autistic children, including cognitive, verbal, social and self-help skills. Behavioural difficulties are also dealt with, allbeit briefly, and there are short sections on recordkeeping and the selection of play materials. Each section is graded; the first tasks being very simple ones appropriate for children with a mental age of 1 year or below. Complexity of the activities is then gradually increased, with subsequent tasks rising to a level which is appropriate for children of 5-6 years and above. Tasks are rated according to the approximate level of the skill required, in terms of the children's motor, perceptual and cognitive development, thus ensuring that the skills taught are appropriate to the child's general level of competence. Unlike the Portage scheme, more widely used in this country, the m a n u a l does not work on the assumption that the child's skills will develop evenly in every area. Instead there is explicit recognition of the fact that autistic children frequently develop faster in some areas than in others. Thus the child m a y be completing self-help tasks at a 3 year level, but still be at a 1 year level in communication skills, and the index makes it possible for the reader to make judgements about the child's level of ability in each of the nine function areas covered. The book is well-presented, easy to read and easy to use, but therein perhaps lies its main problem, in that it makes the tasks and the teaching of them also seem far too easy. For example, instructions for tasks aimed at children with a developmental level of 1 year or below contain advice to 'make sure the child is looking at you', or 'first get his attention', often notably difficult to achieve with autistic children. The authors also tend to assume a degree of imitative ability and motivation to please, which is frequently lacking, especially in more handicapped autistic children. Thus although the teaching examples given are sound enough in principle, in practice, it m a y well be m u c h more difficult to achieve success than the authors indicate. Nevertheless the book taps a wide range of ideas which are likely to be useful in teaching. Unfortunately the main obstacle to using them is likely to be the cost of the volume which, as can be seen above, is not insignificant. PATRICIA HOWLIN
R. M. SUINN: Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology. Nelson Hall, Chicago, Ill. (1984). xxiii + 615 pages $26.95. Like most American textbooks this one is large and copiously illustrated. As such, it is reasonably comprehensive but perhaps lacking the more incisive qualities of shorter British texts. The book is presumably aimed at undergraduate students of psychology and its structure is largely determined by the current A P A classificatory scheme--DSM-III. Generally speaking, there is ample discussion of the major and minor psychological abnormalities that come to the attention of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. The book is not partisan and in general gives a fair s u m m a r y of biological, psychological and social factors in causation and of the varieties of treatment that are available with comments on their effectiveness. The treatments include pharmacological, physical and psychological ones and with the latter the range of available psychotherapies and behaviour therapies are discussed. For readers of this journal, it is worth noting that behaviour therapy is described both as a general way of looking at problems and with regard to specific disorders. I would be able to recommend the book as a comprehensive introductory text and it stands up well to comparison with, for example, Davison and Neale's Abnormal Psychology. Although the DSM-III American classificatory system is used as the basis of the book's chapters, there is no discussion at length of its adequacy nor indeed of alternative systems. I would have preferred more on the topics of quantitative and qualitative differences between diagnostic categories, the relationship of normal personality to psychopathology and the use of mathematical techniques in these areas. A discussion of alternative strategies might also invoke a more productive level of thought about this fundamental issue. I would have liked a discussion of assessment procedures, including interviewing, for personality and behaviour. IQ measures are briefly noted including what I took to be the misleading item that with children, mental and physical ages are still used in the calculation of IQs. The chapter on mental retardation struck me as perhaps not being adequate in a book of this size. A n y comprehensive text naturally produces m a n y small considerations, even disagreements. Two I'll mention. Surely involutional melancholia has been discredited as an entity for m a n y years. On the other hand I would have thought a fairly strong case had been made out for a genetic background in delinquency. Finally, it is m y view that the title 'abnormal psychology' gives an author scope for at least slightly extending the range of material considered beyond that of psychopathology and psychiatry. W h e n this is not done I do have a feeling of disappointment that an opportunity has been missed for extending the horizons of students. J. E. ORME
E. MILLER: Recovery and Management of Neuropsychological Impairments. Wiley, Chichester, U.K. (1984). ix + 175 pages. £12.50. Edgar Miller's new book is an appraisal o f the expanding literature on the m a n a g e m e n t of brain-injured patients, set against the background of a close examination of the experimental research on the rate o f recovery of h u m a n and animal subjects from the brain lesions. Traditionally, the primary function of clinical neuropsychologists has been to detect and document brain damage, and only in the last few years have they become involved in the remediation of neurological patients. One indication of the recency o f this interest is that to date, probably more literature surveys of psychological ar~- :aches to
495
E. SCHOPLER, M. LANSING and L. WATERS: Teaching Activitiesfor Autistic Children. University Park Press, Baltimore, Md. (1983). 258 pages. £54.00. This volume is the third in a series dealing with individualized assessment and treatment for autistic and developmentally disabled children. It covers a wide range of teaching activities, specifically designed for autistic children, including cognitive, verbal, social and self-help skills. Behavioural difficulties are also dealt with, allbeit briefly, and there are short sections on recordkeeping and the selection of play materials. Each section is graded; the first tasks being very simple ones appropriate for children with a mental age of 1 year or below. Complexity of the activities is then gradually increased, with subsequent tasks rising to a level which is appropriate for children of 5-6 years and above. Tasks are rated according to the approximate level of the skill required, in terms of the children's motor, perceptual and cognitive development, thus ensuring that the skills taught are appropriate to the child's general level of competence. Unlike the Portage scheme, more widely used in this country, the m a n u a l does not work on the assumption that the child's skills will develop evenly in every area. Instead there is explicit recognition of the fact that autistic children frequently develop faster in some areas than in others. Thus the child m a y be completing self-help tasks at a 3 year level, but still be at a 1 year level in communication skills, and the index makes it possible for the reader to make judgements about the child's level of ability in each of the nine function areas covered. The book is well-presented, easy to read and easy to use, but therein perhaps lies its main problem, in that it makes the tasks and the teaching of them also seem far too easy. For example, instructions for tasks aimed at children with a developmental level of 1 year or below contain advice to 'make sure the child is looking at you', or 'first get his attention', often notably difficult to achieve with autistic children. The authors also tend to assume a degree of imitative ability and motivation to please, which is frequently lacking, especially in more handicapped autistic children. Thus although the teaching examples given are sound enough in principle, in practice, it m a y well be m u c h more difficult to achieve success than the authors indicate. Nevertheless the book taps a wide range of ideas which are likely to be useful in teaching. Unfortunately the main obstacle to using them is likely to be the cost of the volume which, as can be seen above, is not insignificant. PATRICIA HOWLIN
R. M. SUINN: Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology. Nelson Hall, Chicago, Ill. (1984). xxiii + 615 pages $26.95. Like most American textbooks this one is large and copiously illustrated. As such, it is reasonably comprehensive but perhaps lacking the more incisive qualities of shorter British texts. The book is presumably aimed at undergraduate students of psychology and its structure is largely determined by the current A P A classificatory scheme--DSM-III. Generally speaking, there is ample discussion of the major and minor psychological abnormalities that come to the attention of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. The book is not partisan and in general gives a fair s u m m a r y of biological, psychological and social factors in causation and of the varieties of treatment that are available with comments on their effectiveness. The treatments include pharmacological, physical and psychological ones and with the latter the range of available psychotherapies and behaviour therapies are discussed. For readers of this journal, it is worth noting that behaviour therapy is described both as a general way of looking at problems and with regard to specific disorders. I would be able to recommend the book as a comprehensive introductory text and it stands up well to comparison with, for example, Davison and Neale's Abnormal Psychology. Although the DSM-III American classificatory system is used as the basis of the book's chapters, there is no discussion at length of its adequacy nor indeed of alternative systems. I would have preferred more on the topics of quantitative and qualitative differences between diagnostic categories, the relationship of normal personality to psychopathology and the use of mathematical techniques in these areas. A discussion of alternative strategies might also invoke a more productive level of thought about this fundamental issue. I would have liked a discussion of assessment procedures, including interviewing, for personality and behaviour. IQ measures are briefly noted including what I took to be the misleading item that with children, mental and physical ages are still used in the calculation of IQs. The chapter on mental retardation struck me as perhaps not being adequate in a book of this size. A n y comprehensive text naturally produces m a n y small considerations, even disagreements. Two I'll mention. Surely involutional melancholia has been discredited as an entity for m a n y years. On the other hand I would have thought a fairly strong case had been made out for a genetic background in delinquency. Finally, it is m y view that the title 'abnormal psychology' gives an author scope for at least slightly extending the range of material considered beyond that of psychopathology and psychiatry. W h e n this is not done I do have a feeling of disappointment that an opportunity has been missed for extending the horizons of students. J. E. ORME
E. MILLER: Recovery and Management of Neuropsychological Impairments. Wiley, Chichester, U.K. (1984). ix + 175 pages. £12.50. Edgar Miller's new book is an appraisal o f the expanding literature on the m a n a g e m e n t of brain-injured patients, set against the background of a close examination of the experimental research on the rate o f recovery of h u m a n and animal subjects from the brain lesions. Traditionally, the primary function of clinical neuropsychologists has been to detect and document brain damage, and only in the last few years have they become involved in the remediation of neurological patients. One indication of the recency o f this interest is that to date, probably more literature surveys of psychological ar~- :aches to