Charting the Course for Treating Children with Autism: A Beginner's Guide for Therapists

This book is a guide for professionals to support them in charting the course of treatment when working with children and parents dealing with high functioning autism. The skilled therapist has a crucial role to play in helping these children and their families to navigate what often will be a stormy course. Viewing ASD as a social communicative disorder, this book provides sound background and a discussion of therapeutic interventions. It also offers concrete tools that can be used to determine a goodness of fit between therapist and client. Additionally, the resources provided help to define treatment issues more clearly and will assist the therapist in preparing for potentially difficult encounters.

The book emphasizes an all-encompassing approach to working not only with the children and their parents, but also with their siblings, family members and those in the community who are involved in their lives. Checklists, descriptives, and forms are included in the book, in addition to an accompanying CD, to be used as tools for establishing an effective therapeutic relationship and charting the course of treatment. The book will provide an anchor for any therapist new to treating this disability as well as for those who are seeking alternative approaches to their ongoing work with this population.