The Bottom Line
Edited by John T. Neisworth and Pamela S. Wolfe, and written by a host of contributors; 306 pages. From the book cover: "From A to Z, this encyclopedia offers definitions and descriptions of the array of terms related to the study and treatment of autism and other pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs)."
It's somewhat more scholarly than parent-friendly, but this resource will be invaluable when you're trying to plow through autism texts that are more scholarly still. Keep it close at hand.
Pros
- Clean, easy-to-use format
- Entries long enough to be helpful, not so long as to lose you
- Text is scholarly but not inaccessible to parents
- Good for learning what all those acronyms mean
- Terms useful for parents of children with any developmental or neurological challenge
Cons
- Using different experts for each entry sometimes leads to discrepancies
- A little cautious in description of treatments and interpretations not universally accepted
- You'll wish they could have fit in another 500
Description
- A AAC to AVB
B B6 and magnesium therapy to brushing
C CA to curriculum-based assessment (CBA) - D DA to dysphasia
E early infantile autism to eye gaze
F face recognition to fusiform gyrus - G general case programming (GCP) to guided compliance
H habit reversal to hyporesponsiveness - I ICD-10 to IWRP
J joint attention
K kinesthetic sense
L lactose intolerance to LRE - M MA to mutually acceptable written agreement (MAWA)
N natural environment to nutritional supplement - O objective to overselectivity
P patterning to pyridoxine - R reactive attachment disorder of infancy or early childhood to rumination
- S savant syndrome to system of least prompts
T tact to typical antipsychotic medications - V vaccines to VSM
W wait training to wraparound services - Z zero effect level to zone of proximal development (ZPD)
Appendix A: Screening & Assessment Tools
Guide Review - Book Review: The Autism Encyclopedia 500+ Entries for Parents and Professionals
A good reference book is worth its weight in gold. While these days you can look up just about everything on the Web, there will always be times when finding just the specific information you want can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. More than that, there will be times when you're reading on the bus or in a doctor's waiting room or while someone else is hogging the computer, and you'll need a source of guidance you can flip through in a hurry. "The Autism Encyclopedia" steps up to fill that gap for parents and professionals wanting to learn more about autism and needing a good detailed glossary to do it.
The book tilts a little more toward the scholarly than I would personally like. There's a great deal of concern about what's a legitimate topic and what's not, what research is useful and what isn't. The fact that each entry is written by a different person or persons causes some minor discrepancies among related entries that can be disconcerting. But those are minor quibbles. The text is far less dense than a lot of serious books on special needs, and for parents who read those books regularly in search of a deeper understanding of their children, a nicely cross-referenced and alphabetized description of terms will be immensely useful.
It will also help you figure out what the heck the child study team is talking about on your child's IEP when they throw around big parent-intimidating words. Try using a few yourself at the next meeting. Ha!
