Hello Everyone,
This month’s BLOG will continue the opportunity to view my slideshow GALLERY of Books and focus on the offered Extended Book Reviews. The slideshow shows the book covers, divided into the following categories ~
AMAZING ADVENTURES
DIAGNOSIS, DOCTORS, DENIAL
SAVVY SOLUTIONS
SCHOOL ON THE SHORT BUS
Hopefully, these stories will help parents, clinicians, academics, and all people #Autism, in connecting with those who have gone before us on their Autism Journey. This April 2025 ~ Awareness / Acceptance Month’s BLOGs will continue to give snippets of my Extended Book Reviews; find full reviews on website MENU; along with a LINK to purchase the eBook. You will find each Autism story to be engaging, compelling, and as different as each family's Autism journey.
From the Category – SCHOOL ON THE SHORT BUS. Read the full reviews, plus LINKs to eBooks here, on www.sarasautismsite.com
This month’s BLOG will continue the opportunity to view my slideshow GALLERY of Books and focus on the offered Extended Book Reviews. The slideshow shows the book covers, divided into the following categories ~
AMAZING ADVENTURES
DIAGNOSIS, DOCTORS, DENIAL
SAVVY SOLUTIONS
SCHOOL ON THE SHORT BUS
Hopefully, these stories will help parents, clinicians, academics, and all people #Autism, in connecting with those who have gone before us on their Autism Journey. This April 2025 ~ Awareness / Acceptance Month’s BLOGs will continue to give snippets of my Extended Book Reviews; find full reviews on website MENU; along with a LINK to purchase the eBook. You will find each Autism story to be engaging, compelling, and as different as each family's Autism journey.
From the Category – SCHOOL ON THE SHORT BUS. Read the full reviews, plus LINKs to eBooks here, on www.sarasautismsite.com
Someone I’m With Has Autism, by Carrie Cariello & Jordan Capell, eBook 2015; with < My Thoughts > by Sara Luker
Excerpts from the book (7% indicates location in the Kindle version of the book, instead of page numbers).
7% One big development stands out above the others: the kids know about Jack’s autism. And Jack knows about Jack’s autism. In some ways this has redefined the dynamics of our family.
We love autism. But Jack? As you’ll read, he’s not as impressed with autism as the rest of us are.
8% Jack himself is just learning about his own diagnosis, a discovery that has been both painful and astonishing to him.
< My Thoughts > “…both painful and astonishing…”
There are many days when Sonny’s autism is both painful and astonishing to us, also.
8% “Oh no!” Jack shrieked from where he was standing at the kitchen sink. I rushed over and saw one of Joe’s dark blue mugs, now missing its curved handle, broken when Jack had tried to rinse the hot chocolate out of it.
“I broke it, I broke it, I BROKE IT! I broke Daddy’s mug,” he yelled, holding his hands on his ears.
I didn’t know what all of the fuss was about. We have something like nine hundred and ten of these cobalt blue mugs, each emblazoned with the name of Joe’s dental practice, and frankly I’d like to break a few more so I’d have an excuse to by the white ones I’ve been eyeing at Pottery Barn.
9% I promised that his father would absolutely not be upset, then tried to soothe him by pointing to the rest of our mugs in the cabinet – and on the counter (and in the garage).
“But he LOVES them all!” he whimpered.
I couldn’t console him. He cried off and on all afternoon, calming down just long enough to announce, “But tomorrow. Tomorrow I have art.”
< My Thoughts > “He cried off and on all afternoon…”
When cereal boxes are empty, or something gets broken, our Sonny is inconsolable. He seems to have no reference to 'future' events, such as buying more cereal at the store, or fixing a broken object. It took a long time to console him when a favorite video ended, showing him that he could reload it back in the TV to show again. With Sonny it is not so much an emotional event as a sense of loss. Sort of a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) event.
But with this mug Jack’s rigid mind opened just a crack. He ‘theory-ed’, if you will, enough to realize that Joe might be sad to come home and find one of his mugs broken.
< My Thoughts > “He ‘theory-ed’..."
“He ‘theory-ed’, if you will, enough to realize that Joe might be sad to come home and find one of his mugs broken.” ‘Theory of Mind’ is thinking that everyone is having the same ‘sensory/emotional experience’ that you are. “…everyone sees and feels and likes the same things that you do.” Autistic children find it difficult (if not impossible) to understand the emotions, intentions, and behaviors of other people, so they are said to lack “theory of mind”.
Note: More about Theory of Mind (ToM), go to MENU for – Know Autism, Know Your Child with < My Thoughts > by Sara Luker. Read on this website under – UNIT 3 What Is Most Concerning? CHAPTER 3 – Cognition, Theory of Mind, & Temperament/Personality, APPENDIX B Theory of Mind (ToM).
9% The following afternoon he flew off the school bus with a package wrapped in tissue paper.
“The mug!” he cried. “It’s here!”
Once in the kitchen he set it down carefully and unwrapped it with some ceremony.
Once in the kitchen he set it down carefully and unwrapped it with some ceremony.
“First it was for you. Now it is for Daddy.”
Together we all clustered around and admired the lumpy blue-green mug.
“Nice job, Jack,” Joey said. “It look like a bowl!” Henry offered. “Jackie, you worked hard on this! Daddy will love it!” Rose chimed in.
“Where? Where does Dad get his coffee mug in the morning? From the cabinet or the counter?” he asked.
“Um,” I said, trying to remember Joe’s morning coffee habits. “Well, I think the cabinet, Jack-a-boo. Why?”
“That is where I will put this one. To surprise him. In the morning.”
For no reason at all I felt a lump in my throat. I didn’t know why. Kids the world over present their parents with homemade gifts – ornaments and candle holders and picture frames – sometimes for birthdays or holidays, and sometimes just because.
So why did this misshapen little cup affect me so much? Why did I walk over to the cabinet and open the door and stand staring at it once I was alone in my darkened kitchen? I think this is why.
< My Thoughts > "I think this is why."
As a parent and a Special Education Teacher, when a child with autism makes a small step towards independent problem solving, it is a very big occasion. As parents and teachers, we all celebrate and remember those 'small steps' as 'huge events'.
According to Bogdashina, O., & Casanova, M. (2016), deficits in planning, organizing and monitoring progress towards a goal often prevents one from taking a flexible approach to problem-solving. “Poor Executive Function can easily account for the lack of thinking flexibility and explains the rigidity of thinking exhibited by autistic people, including starting and finishing tasks which include all of the above.”
41% It was Sunday morning in late September – the day after my birthday. I was fuzzily turning pancakes on the griddle while Jack perched at the counter flicking the top to the syrup open and closed and open and closed.
I was just about to tell him to stop doing that, it’s gross to put your hands all over the lid when he asked, “Why was I born with autism?”
“Well Jack, it’s a part of you, just like your eyes are blue and you have big feet.”
“Do all people with blue eyes have it?”
“No, it’s not really about your eyes. It’s like how you learn things.”
And then, in rapid fire, these questions:
“Do grown-ups have it?”
“Who else has it?”
“Where did I get it?”
42% How do I tell my nine-year-old that I love his autism but I also hate it and it’s beautiful but sometimes it’s so very, very ugly?
How do I tell him there are days I literally want to pull my hair out by the handfuls or, better yet, light my eyelashes on fire and run into the street screaming…
Lee, S. B., Song, S. H., et al. (2015) let us know that in this study, adolescents with Asperger syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder indicate that deficits in nonverbal social communication, and exhibit literal interpretation of utterances. This they found was due to their more pragmatic language skills and difficulty with understanding symbolic / idiomatic phrases and expressions.
< My Thoughts > “…symbolic / idiomatic phrases and expressions.”
Helen Bull, Specialist Advisor for Social & Communication Difficulties for Bromley Education Services, says our English language is full of idiomatic phrases and inferential language which, when literally translated, has little or no related meaning.
42% Two weeks later we were having dinner at Shorty’s, our local Mexican restaurant.
Our meals had just arrived and in the midst of napkins and salsa and tipping cups, a robotic voice: “I don’t want this autism anymore. I don’t want it in me.”
I didn’t know what to say when his younger brother Joey, with a mouthful of burrito said, “Jack, I think you’re better with it.”
“Yeah,” Jack said thoughtfully, his mouth full of corn dog, “maybe.”
And behind the thick lenses of his glasses I glimpsed the smallest spark in his blue eyes.
That night I knelt next to Jack’s bed once again and whispered to my sleeping boy:
“You are better with it.” I thought for a second more, and whispered:
“We are better with it.”
< My Thoughts > “You are better with it.”
Along the way, Jack had somehow learned empathy for others and had gained the perception that his dad valued his possessions and would be upset to find that one of his mugs was broken.
And, somehow he knew that besides using them for his morning coffee, Joe gave those mugs as gifts to his patients. Understanding the concept of a valued possession, as well as the concept of giving a gift shows high-function reasoning on Jack’s part.
References:
Bogdashina, O., & Casanova, M. (2016). Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism & Asperger Syndrome; 2nd Edition, eBook.
Lee, S. B., Song, S. H., et al. (2015). Idiom Comprehension Deficits in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder Using a Korean Autism Social Language Task. Retrieved online from – Yonsei Medical Journal; Sept 25;56 (6):1613-1618.
End of excerpt from the eBook by Carrie Cariello & Jordan Capell, eBook 2015. See the full Extended Book Review here on my website.
Thank you for reading and sharing my BLOGs. Comments are welcomed, to be viewed and answered privately. My goal is to assist families, clinicians, educators, and all people ‘autism’, to continue their journey on the Autism Highway. At the end of each website Extended Book Review, please find a source to have the whole book to read.
Regards,
Sara Luker
Paid Link Disclosure -
These Extended Book Reviews have an Amazon Link for actual book purchases. Please read this Paid Link Disclosure AKA Affiliate Links Disclosure:
Sometimes there are paid links, also known as affiliate links, used on this site. My website, www.sarasautismsite.com, is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. This is an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
I may earn or receive a small paid commission from referrals for book purchases made through posts, pages, and links on this site. But I try to remain unbiased and I do not accept paid reviews. All opinions expressed here are my own.
There is no extra cost to you when purchases are made using the provided links. By using the links I provide you agree that you’ve read this paid link disclosure statement.
Thank you!
Sara Luker
Excerpts from the book (7% indicates location in the Kindle version of the book, instead of page numbers).
7% One big development stands out above the others: the kids know about Jack’s autism. And Jack knows about Jack’s autism. In some ways this has redefined the dynamics of our family.
We love autism. But Jack? As you’ll read, he’s not as impressed with autism as the rest of us are.
8% Jack himself is just learning about his own diagnosis, a discovery that has been both painful and astonishing to him.
< My Thoughts > “…both painful and astonishing…”
There are many days when Sonny’s autism is both painful and astonishing to us, also.
8% “Oh no!” Jack shrieked from where he was standing at the kitchen sink. I rushed over and saw one of Joe’s dark blue mugs, now missing its curved handle, broken when Jack had tried to rinse the hot chocolate out of it.
“I broke it, I broke it, I BROKE IT! I broke Daddy’s mug,” he yelled, holding his hands on his ears.
I didn’t know what all of the fuss was about. We have something like nine hundred and ten of these cobalt blue mugs, each emblazoned with the name of Joe’s dental practice, and frankly I’d like to break a few more so I’d have an excuse to by the white ones I’ve been eyeing at Pottery Barn.
9% I promised that his father would absolutely not be upset, then tried to soothe him by pointing to the rest of our mugs in the cabinet – and on the counter (and in the garage).
“But he LOVES them all!” he whimpered.
I couldn’t console him. He cried off and on all afternoon, calming down just long enough to announce, “But tomorrow. Tomorrow I have art.”
< My Thoughts > “He cried off and on all afternoon…”
When cereal boxes are empty, or something gets broken, our Sonny is inconsolable. He seems to have no reference to 'future' events, such as buying more cereal at the store, or fixing a broken object. It took a long time to console him when a favorite video ended, showing him that he could reload it back in the TV to show again. With Sonny it is not so much an emotional event as a sense of loss. Sort of a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) event.
But with this mug Jack’s rigid mind opened just a crack. He ‘theory-ed’, if you will, enough to realize that Joe might be sad to come home and find one of his mugs broken.
< My Thoughts > “He ‘theory-ed’..."
“He ‘theory-ed’, if you will, enough to realize that Joe might be sad to come home and find one of his mugs broken.” ‘Theory of Mind’ is thinking that everyone is having the same ‘sensory/emotional experience’ that you are. “…everyone sees and feels and likes the same things that you do.” Autistic children find it difficult (if not impossible) to understand the emotions, intentions, and behaviors of other people, so they are said to lack “theory of mind”.
Note: More about Theory of Mind (ToM), go to MENU for – Know Autism, Know Your Child with < My Thoughts > by Sara Luker. Read on this website under – UNIT 3 What Is Most Concerning? CHAPTER 3 – Cognition, Theory of Mind, & Temperament/Personality, APPENDIX B Theory of Mind (ToM).
9% The following afternoon he flew off the school bus with a package wrapped in tissue paper.
“The mug!” he cried. “It’s here!”
Once in the kitchen he set it down carefully and unwrapped it with some ceremony.
Once in the kitchen he set it down carefully and unwrapped it with some ceremony.
“First it was for you. Now it is for Daddy.”
Together we all clustered around and admired the lumpy blue-green mug.
“Nice job, Jack,” Joey said. “It look like a bowl!” Henry offered. “Jackie, you worked hard on this! Daddy will love it!” Rose chimed in.
“Where? Where does Dad get his coffee mug in the morning? From the cabinet or the counter?” he asked.
“Um,” I said, trying to remember Joe’s morning coffee habits. “Well, I think the cabinet, Jack-a-boo. Why?”
“That is where I will put this one. To surprise him. In the morning.”
For no reason at all I felt a lump in my throat. I didn’t know why. Kids the world over present their parents with homemade gifts – ornaments and candle holders and picture frames – sometimes for birthdays or holidays, and sometimes just because.
So why did this misshapen little cup affect me so much? Why did I walk over to the cabinet and open the door and stand staring at it once I was alone in my darkened kitchen? I think this is why.
< My Thoughts > "I think this is why."
As a parent and a Special Education Teacher, when a child with autism makes a small step towards independent problem solving, it is a very big occasion. As parents and teachers, we all celebrate and remember those 'small steps' as 'huge events'.
According to Bogdashina, O., & Casanova, M. (2016), deficits in planning, organizing and monitoring progress towards a goal often prevents one from taking a flexible approach to problem-solving. “Poor Executive Function can easily account for the lack of thinking flexibility and explains the rigidity of thinking exhibited by autistic people, including starting and finishing tasks which include all of the above.”
41% It was Sunday morning in late September – the day after my birthday. I was fuzzily turning pancakes on the griddle while Jack perched at the counter flicking the top to the syrup open and closed and open and closed.
I was just about to tell him to stop doing that, it’s gross to put your hands all over the lid when he asked, “Why was I born with autism?”
“Well Jack, it’s a part of you, just like your eyes are blue and you have big feet.”
“Do all people with blue eyes have it?”
“No, it’s not really about your eyes. It’s like how you learn things.”
And then, in rapid fire, these questions:
“Do grown-ups have it?”
“Who else has it?”
“Where did I get it?”
42% How do I tell my nine-year-old that I love his autism but I also hate it and it’s beautiful but sometimes it’s so very, very ugly?
How do I tell him there are days I literally want to pull my hair out by the handfuls or, better yet, light my eyelashes on fire and run into the street screaming…
Lee, S. B., Song, S. H., et al. (2015) let us know that in this study, adolescents with Asperger syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder indicate that deficits in nonverbal social communication, and exhibit literal interpretation of utterances. This they found was due to their more pragmatic language skills and difficulty with understanding symbolic / idiomatic phrases and expressions.
< My Thoughts > “…symbolic / idiomatic phrases and expressions.”
Helen Bull, Specialist Advisor for Social & Communication Difficulties for Bromley Education Services, says our English language is full of idiomatic phrases and inferential language which, when literally translated, has little or no related meaning.
42% Two weeks later we were having dinner at Shorty’s, our local Mexican restaurant.
Our meals had just arrived and in the midst of napkins and salsa and tipping cups, a robotic voice: “I don’t want this autism anymore. I don’t want it in me.”
I didn’t know what to say when his younger brother Joey, with a mouthful of burrito said, “Jack, I think you’re better with it.”
“Yeah,” Jack said thoughtfully, his mouth full of corn dog, “maybe.”
And behind the thick lenses of his glasses I glimpsed the smallest spark in his blue eyes.
That night I knelt next to Jack’s bed once again and whispered to my sleeping boy:
“You are better with it.” I thought for a second more, and whispered:
“We are better with it.”
< My Thoughts > “You are better with it.”
Along the way, Jack had somehow learned empathy for others and had gained the perception that his dad valued his possessions and would be upset to find that one of his mugs was broken.
And, somehow he knew that besides using them for his morning coffee, Joe gave those mugs as gifts to his patients. Understanding the concept of a valued possession, as well as the concept of giving a gift shows high-function reasoning on Jack’s part.
References:
Bogdashina, O., & Casanova, M. (2016). Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism & Asperger Syndrome; 2nd Edition, eBook.
Lee, S. B., Song, S. H., et al. (2015). Idiom Comprehension Deficits in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder Using a Korean Autism Social Language Task. Retrieved online from – Yonsei Medical Journal; Sept 25;56 (6):1613-1618.
End of excerpt from the eBook by Carrie Cariello & Jordan Capell, eBook 2015. See the full Extended Book Review here on my website.
Thank you for reading and sharing my BLOGs. Comments are welcomed, to be viewed and answered privately. My goal is to assist families, clinicians, educators, and all people ‘autism’, to continue their journey on the Autism Highway. At the end of each website Extended Book Review, please find a source to have the whole book to read.
Regards,
Sara Luker
Paid Link Disclosure -
These Extended Book Reviews have an Amazon Link for actual book purchases. Please read this Paid Link Disclosure AKA Affiliate Links Disclosure:
Sometimes there are paid links, also known as affiliate links, used on this site. My website, www.sarasautismsite.com, is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. This is an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
I may earn or receive a small paid commission from referrals for book purchases made through posts, pages, and links on this site. But I try to remain unbiased and I do not accept paid reviews. All opinions expressed here are my own.
There is no extra cost to you when purchases are made using the provided links. By using the links I provide you agree that you’ve read this paid link disclosure statement.
Thank you!
Sara Luker
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