Rating: 
Summary: Mother/Genius/Pioneer
Review: Thank God for Dr. Florance. I read an earlier review that complained because this book didn't offer a "how-to" primer to duplicate her results...that's not the point! Her story is an inspiration to every parent who has been in the uneasy position of questioning the advice/recommendations/diagnoses of the "experts". Dr. Florance is the silver lining for our gifted visual children. Everyone should read this book. Dr. Florance is the expert in this field, and the birth of Whitney brought together her incredible background and her most difficult patient. Her perserverance and patience are awe-inspiring. Read this book and learn about how a truly brilliant mind solves the unsolvable. It's a fascinating journey. Read this book to learn more about parenting. She makes the observation that once Whitney's abilities increased, his autistic symptoms decreased. They were really symptoms of frustration. When I realized that my son's seemingly unreasonable reactions were normal for a child under a tremendous amount of stress, I was better able to help him. Read this book and think about the possibilities. How many kids that seem unteachable are really just being taught in the wrong way? How many talented minds are we wasting? After you read the book, follow her career. 20 years ago she changed the way we treated stuttering. Now she's pioneering a new field. My son is one of her patients and she really can re-engineer the brain.
Rating:
Summary: Mother/Genius/Pioneer
Review: Thank God for Dr. Florance. I read an earlier review that complained because this book didn't offer a "how-to" primer to duplicate her results...that's not the point! Her story is an inspiration to every parent who has been in the uneasy position of questioning the advice/recommendations/diagnoses of the "experts". Dr. Florance is the silver lining for our gifted visual children. Everyone should read this book. Dr. Florance is the expert in this field, and the birth of Whitney brought together her incredible background and her most difficult patient. Her perserverance and patience are awe-inspiring. Read this book and learn about how a truly brilliant mind solves the unsolvable. It's a fascinating journey. Read this book to learn more about parenting. She makes the observation that once Whitney's abilities increased, his autistic symptoms decreased. They were really symptoms of frustration. When I realized that my son's seemingly unreasonable reactions were normal for a child under a tremendous amount of stress, I was better able to help him. Read this book and think about the possibilities. How many kids that seem unteachable are really just being taught in the wrong way? How many talented minds are we wasting? After you read the book, follow her career. 20 years ago she changed the way we treated stuttering. Now she's pioneering a new field. My son is one of her patients and she really can re-engineer the brain.
Rating: 
Summary: customer review
Review: The contents of this book was a disappointment to me.There was more information than I cared to read about Dr. Florance's personal background ,educational accomplishments and career pursuits .Absent from this book was the detailed information I had hoped to discover of how she helped her son.
Rating:
Summary: A Triumph!
Review: The Maverick Mind *needs* to be a bestseller simply because of the triumph of the story itself. There is so little like this in our world today. There's so much "giving up" and resignation that people do because "the experts" are all swamped and jaded and the system is so flawed. We give away the value of our uniqueness and our hope de facto because it's so emotionally and physically draining to fight the system and so few of us have the energy and the skills. We go to our school meetings and we get bashed and deflated and sad and often, we lose when our greatest treasure is at stake: the dignity and well being of our children. This book is not about an autistic boy who "is healed." Maverick Mind is about a genius child who presented to the world as being so different he looked hopelessly disabled, but his tireless unconditionally loving family headed by a mom who happened to be a gifted and educated "brain scientist" out-smarted and out-lasted and at times simply ignored the nay sayers. They focused all their energy on the most valuable entity in existence...that of the fullness and potential of a single human life. It's the embodiment of a dream outcome that all parents who have children with "issues" hope and pray for. This is a book that any parent who has ever felt the pain of having their child rejected, labeled, and scarred, especially
in the academic arena, will enjoy reading. Once read, you will immediately gain new energy and a different perspective that will enable you to go at it with renewed strength. LL, Mother, Ranch Owner, Retired Hi-Tech Project Manager
Idaho
Rating:
Summary: An inspiration for all parents...
Review: The Maverick Mind is the heartening story of a single mother and her family tackling the seemingly insurmountable problems associated with a child misdiagnosed with a disability. Dr. Cheri Florance is an amazing woman who faced unbelievable obstacles in getting appropriate services and help for her son. When no one would or could help her or her son, she searched and did, indeed, find a way to reach and to teach her child. Her resourcefulness, resilience and creativity are awesome! Even for those of us who have met Dr. Florance - her story remains remarkable. As a mother, I found her life to be a shining example of what a mother's love and determination can mean to a child and the unbreakable strength of that bond. Whether a parent of a child with a disability or not, this true-life story is an inspiration to all parents.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but dissapointing
Review: The story this book tells is an amazing one. Whitney, the "silent son" of the book's title is an intelligent, talented child who experienced profound speech and hearing comprehension delays, and was therefore diagnosed as unteachably retarded and autistic. His mother, brother, and sister devoted themselves to the task of teaching him the speech and hearing skills he needed to function in the world--today, he has an impressive record of academic achievement and a commitment to helping others with similar problems. I highly recommend this book to people who are interested in the details of how one person with serious developmental delays was able to work through those and function successfully. However, this book is no fun to read. Dr. Florance's first-person narrative is awash in narcissism, grandiosity, name-dropping, smugness, and self-satisfaction. Frankly, it's embarrassing to see that such a brilliant, motivated person has so little self-awareness. The writing is also clumsy and full of errors (Florance, or her collaborator, often use words incorrectly--"nonplussed", for example, to mean "unfazed"--its exact opposite).
Rating: 
Summary: An Incredible Story (Despite Its Annoying Style)
Review: The story this book tells is an amazing one. Whitney, the "silent son" of the book's title is an intelligent, talented child who experienced profound speech and hearing comprehension delays, and was therefore diagnosed as unteachably retarded and autistic. His mother, brother, and sister devoted themselves to the task of teaching him the speech and hearing skills he needed to function in the world--today, he has an impressive record of academic achievement and a commitment to helping others with similar problems. I highly recommend this book to people who are interested in the details of how one person with serious developmental delays was able to work through those and function successfully. However, this book is no fun to read. Dr. Florance's first-person narrative is awash in narcissism, grandiosity, name-dropping, smugness, and self-satisfaction. Frankly, it's embarrassing to see that such a brilliant, motivated person has so little self-awareness. The writing is also clumsy and full of errors (Florance, or her collaborator, often use words incorrectly--"nonplussed", for example, to mean "unfazed"--its exact opposite).
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating read with some major flaws
Review: This book is certainly worth a read for anyone who loves or teaches a child with special needs. It tells of Whitney's emergance from what most would label autism. He grows from a severely impaired child to a wonderful sounding teen, bright and talented. His mother feels that the problem was what she calls a Maverick Mind, extremely visual to the exclusion of the auditory. I loved reading about his school experiences and working with the educational system to get him what he needed. However, it's only because this book is so well written and interesting that I gave it 4 stars. It had major flaws, in my eyes. First, the actual means to create this transformation are a bit glossed over. We go from seeing Whitney as pretty much unreachable to seeing him as a child that can talk, write and read with not too much in-between. Yes, he is worked with on "reading" logos and pictures, and putting rebus style words in order, but this alone doesn't seem enough. It's very possible that all the years of caring and training suddenly paid off and kicked in, but this is not really what we are told. Secondly, I got tired of hearing how talented and well-known and knowledgable and bright the author, Whitney's mother, was. She was certainly uniquely qualified to help him, but that point was pounded in too much. Also, we are told over and over how the clients, most of whom by the end of the book are "Maverick Minds" like Whitney, are from rich, powerful, CEO families. Money also seems to be no object for Whitney's family, whether to buy new houses all the time, hire what sounds like pretty much a full time personal trainer or go to the best schools. I was left wonderful what other families with children with Whitney but limited means might be able to do about their child. Thirdly, although the author does explain in the foreward she has decided not to include her ex-husband in the book, his complete absense is a bit strange. It is made to see like her 3 children are virgin births, and that he had no influence whatsoever during the 12 years he was with the family. I would have liked to know just a little about him, at least what he was like and if some of the maverick traits may have come from him. Overall, worth reading, but be prepared to be a bit irritated at points!
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