Autism (Cognitive Development) [Hardcover]

Rating: (6 reviews)
Author: Uta Frith
ISBN : 9780631158332
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Uta Frith aims to provide a picture of how autistic individuals think and behave. The main research findings on this seriously handicapping developmental disorder are outlined. The answer she proposes, on the basis of a convincing set of experiments, is that autistic individuals lack the ability to draw together information, from what they see and hear, to derive coherent and meaningful ideas. In particular, it is suggested that they lack a "theory of mind". Ordinarily, children and adults are quite adept at using a range of cues to infer what other people are likely to be thinking and feeling; autistic people seem to lack that ability. Autism is a topic of myth and pain, conflict and fantasy. It is a topic of interest to a range of professionals as well as to the families of affected children. This book presents a psychological account of what happens in the autistic mind. The key problem is an inability to integrate pieces of information into coherent wholes, an inability to make sense particularly of the mind's own activities, thoughts, beliefs and feelings. From this beginning, the language, social and emotional problems all follow as the complex intereactions of human development unfold.

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• Reviews

• Series: Cognitive Development
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Blackwell Publishers (September 14, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631158332
• ISBN-13: 978-0631158332
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces

I got interested in autism/Asperger's in 2003 after hearing an NPR interview on Autism (i.e. the growing rates of autism in Silicon Valley and Sacramento). I realized that Asperger's Syndrome must have been what was wrong with a manager I worked for a few years earlier at a major aerospace company (up until this point I thought he was just a jerk with a PhD). I then read a couple of articles in Wired magazine on the Geek Syndrome which really motivated me to do some extensive reading on the subject. Then I ran across Firth's book "Autism: Explaining the Enigma".

Of all of the books and articles I have read to date on autism this book is the finest introduction to the subject for those who are interested in what autism is and is not. Anyone with an ounce of intellectual curiosity will find this a highly rewarding book, however, if you are looking for a "how to" book on curing or helping someone with autism you will be disappointed. This book provides insight not answers.

What Firth tries to address in this book is identifying what the essence of Autism is. This is extremely important since many of the characteristic features of autism show up in other disorders which are not autism. Firth has a very high clarity of thought in her effort to identify what is and isn't the essence of autism. For example, while mental retardation is very common in autism (>75% according to some accounts), it is not the characteristic that makes someone autistic, since there are mentally retarded individuals who are not autistic.

What I really like about Firth's book is not only her clarity of thinking but the quality of intellectual honesty in dissecting the autism question.

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