The Autism Sisterhood by Michele C. Brooke

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Preface:

This book began as a thought: What if one of my good friends learned her child had autism? What would I say? How would I use my experience to help her navigate this new road? Thus, began my project of writing down words of encouragement and support and, best of all, real-life ideas and suggestions to help guide her [you] through this new journey.

 Between you and me, I am very thankful for what life has brought my way because it has made all the difference. I have two boys diagnosed with high functioning autism. When my oldest son was first diagnosed, I had no idea what autism really was. This, of course, is no longer the case.

 The Autism Sisterhood: A (Brief) Manual is designed to be a starting point. It's short because I know you don't have much free time to sit without interruption, and it's small because I hope that once you've read it, you'll place it in your purse or backpack and pass it along to another mom (or dad) who may need it.

 We're all in this together-learning, supporting, and laughing. So, should your son or daughter receive an autism diagnosis, please take a moment. Deep inhale. Slow exhale. Relax and know that autism is an incredible journey, and you all are going to be just fine.

My thoughts:

First off, I like the title.  It really says what the book meant to me when I was reading it.  Many of the areas that author Michele Brooke covers are things we have done.  So for me when I was reading the book it felt like I was chatting with another "been there, done that" type of Mom.  I found that I was in my head adding in things that I would talk about, and ways I had incorporated many of these concepts, or ways I could still incorporate them.  Like many parents, you may not agree with every little thing someone else says.  With this book you may not agree with every suggestion, or think it might not work for your child, but every child is different.  What it does do is gets you thinking.  It makes you think about things you may have done in the past, things you could work on now or even in the future.  It may give you just some little suggestions you may not have heard about before. 

I think this would definitely be nice for a parent of a child who is newly diagnosed, especially coming from another parent that can give even more examples of what Michele Brooke is writing about.  I like that the book is simple and doesnt have any difficult to understand concepts.  Sometimes you go to a specialist and you feel like your the one with autism and trying to figure out what this person is talking about.  You just dont make the connection like you can with other parents.  That is what is great, it is a way to connect not only with your child but by doing so with other parents.  The book to me is kind of like one of the topics that she covers "explore and elaborate".  I think this is such an important topic for the child, but while reading this book, that is what I found myself doing.  I could definitely see myself chatting with other parents and us figuring out many ways to "explore and elaborate" .

This book is not a long emotional tear inducing book or one of those "here's the cure to autism" type of book. It is short and simple.  Its not about finding cures, or having someone feel sorry for you or your child.  Its about making connections.  It gives some brief examples of some techniques that have worked for a parent(or many like the author) in simple to understand ways.  The reader then can take those and expand on them in ways that may help their child...or even just bring up the suggestion to another parent, therapist, teacher or specialist to get further information on how to work that technique into their lives. 

~You can purchase this for $9.99 on Amazon.

disclosure:  I received a free copy of this book to review(as a member of Mamabuzz), but will definitely be passing it on so another parent can join the sisterhood.

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