Fragile Success: Ten Autistic Children, Childhood to Adulthood, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating read for educators, scary for parents
Review: I think this book should come with a warning label for parents. This book may be fascinating and interesting, but it is too scry for parents. As an educator, I read with great interest. As a parent, it left me in tears, as I contemplated what adulthood would be like for my son with autism.
Our knowledge and understanding of autism has changed drastically since the sixties and seventies. It is heartbreaking to realize how the individuals in this book could have benefitted from some of the therapies and teaching strategies that our kids today are receiving.
I fail to see how this book can do anything for parents, but scare them. There is little correlation between autistic children raised and educated in the 60's and 70's and autistic children being raised and educated today. The addition of early childhood intervention alone is having a profound impact on the lives of children.
There are many other books that offer more insight and hope.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating read for educators, scary for parents
Review: I think this book should come with a warning label for parents. This book may be fascinating and interesting, but it is too scry for parents. As an educator, I read with great interest. As a parent, it left me in tears, as I contemplated what adulthood would be like for my son with autism.
Our knowledge and understanding of autism has changed drastically since the sixties and seventies. It is heartbreaking to realize how the individuals in this book could have benefitted from some of the therapies and teaching strategies that our kids today are receiving.
I fail to see how this book can do anything for parents, but scare them. There is little correlation between autistic children raised and educated in the 60's and 70's and autistic children being raised and educated today. The addition of early childhood intervention alone is having a profound impact on the lives of children.
There are many other books that offer more insight and hope.

Rating:
Summary: Parents Should Read This Book
Review: This book is a must-read for anyone who is a parent or caregiver to a child with developmental problems such as mental retardation or autism. We would also recommend it to professionals who deal with such children and adults, as it includes the parent's perspective in dealing with handicapped offspring - something every professional should be aware of and sensitive to. As parents of a mildly retarded child with autism, we found this book to be extremely enlightening. People with handicapped children often feel that they are alone in dealing with their problems, and have no concept of how their child's life may develop as they grow older. Mrs. Sperry has done a wonderful job of chronicling the lives of several children with varying degrees of handicaps, from their early childhood to their present adult lives. It gives hope and understanding to the parent/caregiver, and assurance that others share their trials and triumphs, frustrations and dreams.

Rating:
Summary: Unique, moving, stories of growth
Review: This collection of true case histories of children with autism who have grown to adulthood is a major contribution, and should be read by every parent of a child with autism, as well as by professionals who deal with childhood disabilities. I've seen no other book that follows children with autism for more than 30 years. The author is a former teacher who has followed the lives, habits, work, hobbies and social relations of her former pupils from pre-school to their late 30s or 40 years of age. The result is a fascinating, often moving, account of how they have come to terms with their disability and the world around them.

Rating:
Summary: A Much Needed Book About Autism Through the Lifespan
Review: Whose head would not spin and whose mind would not go fast forward to the future upon hearing that their child had been diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder? When a young child is diagnosed with a lifelong condition, the calendar of a parent's life goes out the window. The initial impact is like a bomb that obliterates a parent's hopes and dreams. From that point on mothers and fathers take one step at a time coping with their child's present and hoping for a meaningful future. What that future will hold is illusive and mysterious as the disorder of autism itself. Fragile Success: Ten Autistic Children, Childhood to Adulthood by Virginia Sperry, a new release from Paul Brookes Publishing Company, provides as no other book a perspective that will enlighten and encourage parents.

In this work, the reader is treated to the life stories of ten children with autism over the 30 years they were taught and then followed by retired teacher, Virginia Sperry. Each case history includes the perspective of parents, teachers, medical professionals, and social workers. In a simple, straightforward way, the author is able to modestly demystify the complexity of autism with great respect to the diversity of the condition within the spectrum as it affects individual children and the adults they grow up to be. New in this second edition is a forward by Fred R. Volkmar, M.D. as well as a 10th case study about a child growing up with PDD-NOS. Most chapters begin with a photo of the child as a recently diagnosed preschooler and conclude with a current picture in adulthood.

As a parent of an adult child with autism myself, the beginning of each life story was all too familiar and painful. What is remarkably uplifting, however, is how child's life evolved and their conditions changed slowly but steadily over the years. I wish I had a book like this when my son was first diagnosed to help me imagine the future in realistic but hopeful terms. For each child whose story is told, we are able to follow their personal and family lives, their social habits, their hobbies, and their work. In addition, the reader can review their initial evaluations from the renowned Yale Child Study Center in addition to their test data in adulthood reviewed by Fred R. Volkmar, M.D.

Many of the parents interviewed, like the rest of us parents, started out angry and embittered at the time of the diagnosis. They lived day to day coping the best they could. They feared that their child might become totally unreachable, or in one mother's words, "back off the edge of the earth and never return." By the second edition of Fragile Success, every parent, like every child, had changed greatly. They were proud and happy about their children's accomplishments whatever their limitations.

Tom, for example, is described as a self-confident adult, living independently with staff support in his own condominium, and working at the same restaurant job for twenty years. Bill is married and the proud father of two children, employed in the sales department of Disney World, active in his church, and pursuing a master's degree in computer science. Eric lives in a group home, speaks in short sentence, holds a job in a workshop, and has amazed and delighted his mother who lived through his nonverbal, aggressive early years.

Throughout the book, we can feel Virginia Sperry's caring, patient, unrelenting attitude. She engaged with the children she taught and helped them to engage with learning and with other people. Success was slow and painstaking. She and her colleagues demanded a relationship with their students and worked patiently until they got it. At times the academics were less relevant than nurturing a relationship which helped these children to identify anger, affection, sadness, humor, and express their wants and needs appropriately. They went on to achieve what Sperry describes so eloquently as a success which began as fragile and became stronger year by year from childhood to adulthood. With the advantage of current medical knowledge and treatment technology, children with autistic spectrum disorders will be realizing even more of their potential.

As a parent, I am glad that this very special contribution from a wonderful teacher has been brought back from the out-of-print abyss. It gives me comfort and hope as my own son enters adulthood. As a professional who provides guidance to families, I will often recommend this little gem of a book which makes my job easier. ...

Rating:
Summary: A Much Needed Book About Autism Through the Lifespan
Review: Whose head would not spin and whose mind would not go fast forward to the future upon hearing that their child had been diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder? When a young child is diagnosed with a lifelong condition, the calendar of a parent's life goes out the window. The initial impact is like a bomb that obliterates a parent's hopes and dreams. From that point on mothers and fathers take one step at a time coping with their child's present and hoping for a meaningful future. What that future will hold is illusive and mysterious as the disorder of autism itself. Fragile Success: Ten Autistic Children, Childhood to Adulthood by Virginia Sperry, a new release from Paul Brookes Publishing Company, provides as no other book a perspective that will enlighten and encourage parents.

In this work, the reader is treated to the life stories of ten children with autism over the 30 years they were taught and then followed by retired teacher, Virginia Sperry. Each case history includes the perspective of parents, teachers, medical professionals, and social workers. In a simple, straightforward way, the author is able to modestly demystify the complexity of autism with great respect to the diversity of the condition within the spectrum as it affects individual children and the adults they grow up to be. New in this second edition is a forward by Fred R. Volkmar, M.D. as well as a 10th case study about a child growing up with PDD-NOS. Most chapters begin with a photo of the child as a recently diagnosed preschooler and conclude with a current picture in adulthood.

As a parent of an adult child with autism myself, the beginning of each life story was all too familiar and painful. What is remarkably uplifting, however, is how child's life evolved and their conditions changed slowly but steadily over the years. I wish I had a book like this when my son was first diagnosed to help me imagine the future in realistic but hopeful terms. For each child whose story is told, we are able to follow their personal and family lives, their social habits, their hobbies, and their work. In addition, the reader can review their initial evaluations from the renowned Yale Child Study Center in addition to their test data in adulthood reviewed by Fred R. Volkmar, M.D.

Many of the parents interviewed, like the rest of us parents, started out angry and embittered at the time of the diagnosis. They lived day to day coping the best they could. They feared that their child might become totally unreachable, or in one mother's words, "back off the edge of the earth and never return." By the second edition of Fragile Success, every parent, like every child, had changed greatly. They were proud and happy about their children's accomplishments whatever their limitations.

Tom, for example, is described as a self-confident adult, living independently with staff support in his own condominium, and working at the same restaurant job for twenty years. Bill is married and the proud father of two children, employed in the sales department of Disney World, active in his church, and pursuing a master's degree in computer science. Eric lives in a group home, speaks in short sentence, holds a job in a workshop, and has amazed and delighted his mother who lived through his nonverbal, aggressive early years.

Throughout the book, we can feel Virginia Sperry's caring, patient, unrelenting attitude. She engaged with the children she taught and helped them to engage with learning and with other people. Success was slow and painstaking. She and her colleagues demanded a relationship with their students and worked patiently until they got it. At times the academics were less relevant than nurturing a relationship which helped these children to identify anger, affection, sadness, humor, and express their wants and needs appropriately. They went on to achieve what Sperry describes so eloquently as a success which began as fragile and became stronger year by year from childhood to adulthood. With the advantage of current medical knowledge and treatment technology, children with autistic spectrum disorders will be realizing even more of their potential.

As a parent, I am glad that this very special contribution from a wonderful teacher has been brought back from the out-of-print abyss. It gives me comfort and hope as my own son enters adulthood. As a professional who provides guidance to families, I will often recommend this little gem of a book which makes my job easier. ...