Out of Silence: An Autistic Boy's Journey Into Language and Communication

This is probably the most powerful book I've read on autism. The author is a professional writer, so he knows how to tell a story, which is unusual in books on autism. Also, he tells the story from the unique perspective of an uncle of a young autistic boy. He is close enough to the family to feel empathy for the subject, and have the detailed information of a family insider, and yet distant enough to maintain the clear perspective of an observant storyteller. This is a good book for a family with an autistic child to share with friends, grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. It is interesting and readable, and gives a "layman" a good (but grim) picture of what autism really is. The book itself is about Ian, who is diagnosed as lower-functioning autistic at preschool age. It carries on through Ian's elementary school years, the family's hope for a cure or solution, the parents' emotional and financial struggles, and the older daughter's distress at the situation along the way. Ian develops in some areas, and is eventually able to communicate using hand-over-hand typing. The author had earlier written a book on a neurosurgeon, and through it gained some knowledge of neurological development. His chapters speculating on neurological and language development and the causes of autism perhaps have to be taken with a grain of salt, but they are informative nonetheless. These chapters aside, this book is about little Ian, and his progress over several years. For parents of an autistic child, it is valuable just to see how Ian fared over the years, both developmentally and in the public school system. This is not a happy or triumphant story-- it's a real-life, realistic look at life with autism. In the end, one feels a closeness to Ian, and wonders how he is doing now.

I really liked this book because it also teaches you about language and linguistics, while it portrays a child growing up and trying to cope with his disability. The only problem I had was the intervention of FC (facilitated Communication) which was supposedly effective in this child's case.I am skeptical about FC, but this child was of normal or superior intelligence so it probably worked for him, however, in general FC has not been shown to be beneficial under the scrutiny of scientific study. I did learn very interesting facts from this book that I would never have known because it looks at Autsim from mainly a language perspective.Because I believe that Applied Behaviorial Analysis (ABA) which is behavioral treatement of Autism is the only scientific way to treat autism I was a little disturbed at the parent's rejection of this therapy outright. It has worked wonders with my child and has benefitted and even recovered so many children with autism. However this is an 80's story and ABA was not as well known or accepted and people though it used cruel techniques. However now it is the only accepted educational treatement for autism by the NIH, since it is the only treatement that has science to back it up.