Sometime after midnight this Tuesday, my new book The Parents' Guide to Teaching Kids with Asperger Syndrome and Similar ASDs Real-Life Skills for Independence will take its first baby steps out into the world. Unlike books I edited or cowrote earlier in my career, it won't necessarily have to be shipped to a bookstore (though it could be). It might fly through the clouds of whispernet technology or get "beamed down" as an iBook. However it lands--on pages or in pixels--I hope that it will find good homes, where it will be given space--on a shelf or a memory chip--and have the honor of proving its usefulness again and again.
This is my first blog posting, so I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing or where this will go. Though I do love to hear from readers, this blog is not open for comments simply because I don't have time to monitor comments. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that people come to websites about autism and Asperger syndrome for information, not to debate any number of ASD-related social, medical, or political controversies. There are plenty of other places for that.
As you will read in my new book--and its predecessor, The OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome--one thing I feel most strongly about is helping parents, friends, and professionals to recognize and understand the critical difference between evidence-based, scientifically evaluated interventions and everything else. With a young child, it is easy to feel you have all the time in the world. However, I have yet to meet a parent of a child of any age who feels that there is nothing left to teach, to do, to change. Our kids have more to learn and less time to do it in. Every moment counts, and one goal of my new book is helping parents make the most of those moments to build the real-life skills kids need to lead the lives they desire and deserve.
Thank you to everyone so far who has given my new "baby" such a warm welcome.
Thank you for reading!
Patty