Martha Globus

This book made the biggest positive difference in my understanding my extremely difficult child, who is now a 32 year old adult who at age 12 was diagnosed with PDD nos, which is now rolled into the diagnosis, "autism spectrum disorder," When he was born in 1991, autism was not a common diagnosis. In spite of my having worked with young children for many years before my son was born, I had never heard of autism. This book gave me a human , not medicalized, understanding of my very difficult son. There was a chapter called "the mother killer." it was about those children who happened to have all the types of sensitivities and difficult temperaments, combined. I remember reading that chapter and laughing.... That chapter described my son. It gave me an understanding of temperament and the importance of the match between child and caregiver, and it made me feel sane, and alleviated my fear that perhaps I was just an incompetent mother. I have used what I learned, in reading this book , with all the children I worked with after that. When I was the director of a daycare/ Preschool, it allowed me to notice when there was a problematic match between teacher and child, and to recognize the teacher or student not as being good or bad, right or wrong, and allowed me to find ways to address difficulties that arose, much more effectively and without blame of either.