Reference Reviews

Doug's Student Reference Room

Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: Autism. Edited by Carrie Fredericks. 168 p. Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-7377-3869-8. $34.95.

Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: Autism I live in a part of the country where the autism caseload at the state’s Department of Developmental Services has doubled in just four years. According to the Autism Society of America, autism diagnoses increased over thirteen hundred percent between 1990 and 2000. Profiles of accomplished professionals with Asperger’s syndrome or mild autism have heightened awareness of autism as a disorder whose symptoms run a wide spectrum. This volume provides an excellent introduction to the disorder. The first section describes the causes, signs, symptoms and treatment of autism and Asperger’s syndrome. The second section offers opposing views about possible causes of autism, exploring the current debate over the role of vaccines and the possible connection between older fathers and increased autism rates. Additional essays offer treatment approaches that are still quite new and not universally accepted. The final section’s four essays offer deep personal insights into the disorder. The first is an excerpt from Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life with Autism, animal science professor Temple Grandin’s memoir, which provides clear, specific and fascinating examples of how her thought processes and observations of the world differ as a result of her condition. The second is an account from the outside looking in: parents of a boy with severe autism share the trials and tribulations of trying to break through and provide the best possible life for their son. The third is a personal account of a young adult who developed enough skills to live independently, and the last is the story of the autistic child of former football player Rodney Peete and his actress wife, Holly Robinson Peete, and of their family’s determined efforts to help the child overcome significant behavioral issues associated with the disorder. Together, the four essays communicate a broad spectrum of personal experience that will help readers understand the implications of the disorder more deeply. This volume is recommended for middle school, high school and public libraries.

—Doug Achterman