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Special Note to Readers For families of children with autism, there was no doubt that reading the first three books I had written would help tremendously in understanding those issues discussed in this, my fourth book. Given “our journey” was still also very much unfolding, it was difficult to share this journey without providing some repetition in certain areas. I debated as to “how” to write this book and finally came to the conclusion that I had to include materials I had previously covered in my other books. I wanted this book to provide a place to put most of my thoughts on language and/or communication in autism and as such, major sections from other books needed to be included here. With 50% of children with autism considered “non-verbal”, matters of “repetition of issues previously covered” needed to take a back seat to understanding of the issues. For these children and their families, I needed to make this text as complete as possible – and for those of you who had read my previous works, that meant some repetition. I would indicate “repeating sections” best I could, but I simply had no way around this issue – not if I wanted to make this the text I needed it to be. Duplicate sections were indicated as such in the Table of Contents and in the text itself. It was simply too difficult to discuss language issues and keep telling readers to “go read this section on language in another book”. These sections were simply too critical to the discussion, and as such, they needed to be included here so that those parents picking up this text only – not having read the first three – could also understand the issues clearly. As such, there would be more repetition in this book than I had originally planned to include, but I simply did not see how I could get around it and I hoped all readers understood that. My previous books were as follows: 1. Saving Zachary: The Death And Rebirth Of A Family Coping With Autism! 2. Breaking The Code To Remove The Shackles Of Autism: When The Parts Are Not Understood And The Whole Is Lost! 3. Breaking The Code: Putting Pieces In Place!
Each of these books was available for downloading – for free – to any immediate family member of a person with autism, schizophrenia or Alzheimer’s – three disorders that, as shown in book 3, were in my opinion, very, very closely related. In my third book, I had provided over 160 parallels between autism and Alzheimer’s and over 140 between autism and schizophrenia. I had also shown the common history of these disorders as well. Note: When referring to my previous books, I will often just use “book 1, book 2 or book 3” since it is simply easier to do so. I encouraged all families to read these three books also. Finally, “color” was very much involved in my actual teaching materials – and as such, in my opinion, this text was most useful if printed “in color” – especially – the appendix of exercises! I had included shapes for those who did not have color printers and as such, the concept was still there without colors, but, in my opinion, there could be no denying the impact of colors in Zachary’s life! |
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