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Rating: 
Summary: Writing off Ian?
Review: "Out Of Silence" is written in beautiful, even flowery, language, but in many ways the book's style seems to triumph over its substance. Martin writes with enthusiasm about linguistic theory and the history of autism, but lacks expertise and so makes elementary mistakes and omissions - for example, he claims that there were almost no cases of autism in existence before the introduction of the pertussis vaccine, which he blames for most cases of autism, ignoring the fact that experts have found unmistakable cases of autism in records dating back to the Middle Ages. Similarly, his attempt to see autism in its entirety as a linguistic problem leads him to ignore the overwhelming evidence that people with autism (who may in some cases have near-normal language skills) also think in ways which are very different from the norm (as is confirmed by first-person accounts written by people with high-functioning autism). In some ways, the most disturbing aspect of the book is its presentation of FC: "facilitated communication". Because of his linguistic view of autism, Martin sees it as a disorder in which a normal mind is "trapped" within an autistic body, and so it is unsurprising that FC would appeal to him, and that he would refuse to accept the numerous studies which have unequivocally shown that the messages are coming unconsciously from the facililitator. Nonetheless, his presentation of the debate is shoddy. He simply accuses critics of FC of thinking that people with autism are "idiots", an accusation which is cruel and ironic given that those who accept the evidence against FC include a number of high-functioning autistic people such as Temple Grandin. He ignores the key question about FC: how much damage can be done to the lives of autistic children and adults if absolute trust is placed in "messages" which may not be coming from them at all? He describes, apparently without qualms, the parents of his autistic nephew Ian physically holding him at the keyboard despite his struggles, force-feeding him, and forcibly taking a struggling Ian to school despite his verbal cries of "stay home! sick!" - all because the facilitated "messages" say that this is what he really wants. Ian's favourite activities, like flapping book pages, are characterized as nothing more than involuntary body movements that get in the way of the "real" Ian. In his pursuit of the normal child supposedly trapped within, Martin and others seem to be in danger of writing off the autistic child as a mere "shell", to be disregarded and overpowered where possible.
Rating: 
Summary: Not too good!!
Review: I bought this book under the impression that it was a potryal of the life of a boy with autism. Instead, it is pretty much useless chatter by Ian's uncle about the evolution of language. He did not fully talk about Ian until about 3/4 of the way through the book. Buy the book if you want to learn about the evolution of language, but if you are looking to read about autism, save your money!!
Rating: 
Summary: Autism presented as a linguistic problem
Review: Martin approaches autism as a primarily linguistic problem, virtually ignoring it's emotional, mental, and social manifestations unless they relate directly to the language deficit. Nonetheless, the author gives an interesting account of the history of language acquisition and examines its different theories. Were Martin to have written the book solely on what he appears to be most knowledgeable about, there would be little cause for complaint. However, his assertion that autism was caused by a childhood vaccine not only in the case of his nephew but in other children as well is largely unsupported. Similarly, his wholehearted acceptance and belief in the legitimacy of facilitated communication seems to ignore the many problems with FC which experts have raised. One should be aware of Martin's one-sided approach to autism and regard the book as a work concerned primarily with linguistics and language acquisition rather than autism itself.
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