Return of the Dragon

I love reading to my children, but it's not always
easy.  My boy with autism at various times has
had to be cajoled, tricked, and almost sat on in
order to get him to sit still and listen to a story.
This summer vacation I wrote about how much 
the boys enjoyed My Father's Dragon at bedtimes.
So recently I checked out the sequel, but with
mixed results. The boys don't share a room at 
home, so there was no snuggling and settling
down. Instead this has been me and the my ten 
year old in his room sometimes fending off a
randomly bouncing four year old.
I think Elmer and the Dragon is a very
engaging story, but despite the cliff hanger 
endings of each chapter, he's displayed no
impatience or desire to read ahead on his own.
He seems to like the book well enough, but
I keep him engaged only by insisting he voice
one of the characters (I let him choose between
Elmer and the dragon-he picked Elmer).
For some children, the dragon would be enough
reason to read the book.
Here's hoping your child has a go to animal
for enchantment-


-Spectrum Mom

No! Don’t read, Mommy!

Around the time we received the diagnosis

of PDD-NOS for my son (aged two),

I sat down to read

But Not the Hippopotamus

with him, and he said "no!"

and moved away from me.

I cannot recall whether this happened

before or after the diagnosis although I think he said “no!”

reading after we started to notice regression (18 months).

My mother and husband don’t recall the incident at all.

Odd, because my mother told me what to do.

“Stop saying you’re reading to him,”

she advised,

“say: ‘Mommy reads to mommy’ and read out loud to yourself.”

I did, and my blessedly curious curly haired tot

soon cuddled up close to me again for book time.

He still would not look at But Not the Hippopotamus,

(perhaps we read that too much too early?)

but The Going to Bed Book and Good Night Moon

came back into our lives.

The Rosemary Wells illustrated Nursery rhyme

board books also pleased him mightily.

Do any readers have children with autism who love rhymes?

The predictability of rhymes make them so appealing to an

orderly mind set - a natural fit for children (with or

without a diagnosis) who like patterns and

predictability.

Just as threatened in my previous post, I’ve signed up with

Amazon. Alas, I do not think I will get much filthy lucre by

my crass commercialism, but my main goal is to get

good book pictures for the site. We’ll see how that works out.

Supposedly, there's also a way to post a link that

lets you buy the book.

Full disclosure: If you click thru and buy the featured book,

they do credit me with some %, I think 4%, for

the sale. I’m not being cagey here, Amazon doesn’t list

what % you get for a book! So if I ever figure

out how to add the link and if that 4% ever equals

$10 and if I ever figure out how to fill out the payment

form . . . You get the picture. At least the one at the

top of the post. I hope. Maybe.

Books for Children on the Autism Spectrum is a participant

in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate

advertising program designed to provide a means for sites

to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to

amazon.com

"They rock, and rock, and rock to sleep"

-Boynton

Reading Aloud to Young Children on the Autism Spectrum

Reading aloud to my children gives me a warm, connected feeling. I feel I am where I should be, doing what I should be doing.

When my son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, nobody mentioned anything about what books to read aloud. I assume because there's no official position on the matter.

If you have a very young child who has been diagnosed with autism, you may wonder whether you need to pick the books you read aloud more carefully.

I would suggest letting your child be your guide, just as you would with any child. Read whatever you choose as long as your child is engaged. If your child seems uninterested you may want to remember some criteria I discussed earlier, and will rephrase here:

- representational, uncrowded illustrations that directly represent the text
- simple text

Board books with babies appeal to most little ones. My son, like many kids with an autism diagnosis, looked less at people's faces than other children. But he enjoyed the various babies and toddlers photographed by Tom Arma, Neil Ricklen, and Anne Geddes in little board books with simple, sometimes word-a-page texts. Similar books without credited authors include Good Night Baby, Baby Faces and Baby's Home.

My brother suggests One Yellow Lion by Matthew VanFleet as an amazingly engrossing book for young children with a simple direct presentation of numbers and animals.

Janet and Allan Ahlberg wrote and illustrated The Baby's Catalogue, a series that presents familiar concepts with charming, recognizable illustrations. Titles include See the Rabbit and Blue Buggy.

They also wrote a book (Each Peach, Pear, Plum) I love, but can't recommend for this audience. The illustrations are attractive, but confusing and my son never engaged with the book at all.

Reading offers an easy opportunity to try to encourage habits like pointing-often difficult for children on the spectrum-and recognizing emotions-ditto. But only if the encouragement comes naturally and does not diminish the enjoyment.

When reading to a young child, both the reader and the child should be enjoying themselves. You want the child to think of books as fun, not work.