Lynn Kern Koegel Ph.D.

First, I hate the title. You don't "overcome" autism.

Koegel and LaZebnik focus on a behaviorally based approach to dealing with autism. Nothing else gets a look--this isn't a "comprehensive" book (on the other hand, not having to read about pseudoscientific "miracles" is not a drawback). The approach is more or less ABA based, particularly the Pivotal Response Treatment Dr. Koegel co-developed, but also other behaviorally based techniques.

There's a lot of positives in the book. While the approach is behavioral, it's a naturalistic method that emphasizes finding the child's motivators and making use of them. The goal is to analyze the functions of behaviors--positive or negative--and use those motivations to encourage positive behaviors, rather than being punitive. The authors reinforce the idea that behaviors have a purpose and that altering negative behaviors requires that we understand why they are happening so the function can be filled in a more positive way. Parents are encouraged to celebrate their child's strengths and not focus on weaknesses. The basic part of their approach has received much deserved praise--especially if your child does have some verbal skills, there is a lot to work with here on learning new ways to interact with your child and how to understand and manage behaviors.

I've read reviews that criticized the book for only focusing on "high functioning" children. I don't think that's quite accurate. Rather, I would say that Dr. Koegel is overenthusiastic for her method. She believes that almost all kids will respond to it and therefore the sections on older children tend to focus on higher level issues (social skills/pragmatics rather than basic communication). She believes that most kids, if intervention is started early, will become verbal, and that the focus of the program should be verbal communication and that alternate systems should only be added if verbal instruction is unsuccessful rather than as an aid to developing verbal skills. The problem is less that the ideas are wrong and more that the stories and techniques tend to gloss over hard to manage situations.

The sections on social skills and stimming are where I had the biggest issues. The outright stated goal here is that autistic kids need to be like typical kids, and the techniques for promoting that goal are aggressive (though not cruel). For example, social stigma of stims is given really heavy weight, as if the embarrassment factor of the behavior is more important than focusing on those behaviors which are really disruptive or self harming. (I am not saying that social stigma is nothing at all, but the priority it is given seems misplaced.) She also pushes socialization very heavily, including admonitions not to let kids play alone at recess doing their own thing. It's a question of balance and the tone felt like it tipped too much towards one side of the scale.

The methods are heavily parent focused and while many parents will find this empowering, without good external support, a lot of parents will find it overwhelming.… (plus d'informations)