An Introduction to Autism for Adoptive and Foster Families: How to Understand and Help Your Child

As someone who has worked for many years assessing children with autism and giving advice to social workers/local authorities about meeting the needs of all kinds of children who are adopted or cared for; I am delighted to finally have such an accessible, evidence driven and well written book to recommend to those parents / carers who are trying to understanding and respond to children who will likely have experienced poor early care experiences and have the extra complexity of autism. The authors clearly bring enormous specialist experience and compassion, and convey complex ideas in a clear and practical way. It is often difficult to find broad advice about autism that is well integrated, drawing on the psychological and developmental research and practice evidence. As this is written by experienced clinical psychologists you don't have the problem of hearing uncritically about just one approach. These carers will face lots of challenges and will need the full 'toolkit', in this book anyone caring for a child with autism will find a wealth of resources and things to try - as the authors point out, each child with autism is different.

This book is an easy to read introduction to the basics of autism. It is aimed at adoptive and foster families and therefore a lot of the second half discusses the complexities of attachment and trauma when combined with autism. Many autistic people have experienced trauma, so I believe the book is useful to a much wider audience than that which it targets.The book begins by explaining autism in an easy to understand manner, which is more challenging than one might think as there are so many myths and unknowns when it comes to autism. Different people have different (and often very strong) views on the ontological nature of autism. Fictional children are used to illustrate points throughout the book which I enjoyed. It was another aspect which makes the book more accessible than many autism books. I like the use of illustrations throughout the book. In particular the balloons which were used to illustrate what is meant by the ‘spectrum’ worked well. The spectrum is often conceptualised as linear - from mild to severe - but the balloon illustrations and the written description help to demonstrate that the spectrum should be considered more like a 3d constellation where each autistic person has their own version which can change throughout their life.The importance of an individual approach to supporting children is emphasised and there are many practical strategies for parents and carers to try. I was pleased to see a reasonable amount of information about supporting the child’s sensory needs as this area can sometimes be neglected, yet for some people it is one of the most disabling aspects of autism.The authors demonstrate a good understanding of the controversies and politics around language such as words like ‘disorder’. However, they sit on the fence somewhat by using both identity first and person first language (e.g. ‘autistic child’ and ‘child with autism’). Whilst it is true that research shows there are many different language preferences amongst different autism communities, there is now a lot of evidence that autistic people, in the main, prefer the more positive identity first language (Kenny et al., 2016). I felt like an opportunity was missed to inform readers about the importance of listening to the autistic voice. With this in mind, sections or examples from autistic adults would have been an excellent addition, in particular those who have experience of adopting and fostering either as a child or foster carer.Whilst the beginning of the book has general information about autism and how to support your child, the later chapters are more specific to adoptive and foster families with transitions, attachment and trauma covered in a similar accessible style with lots of practical advice.Although this book is aimed at adoptive and foster families it would be suitable for all parents of autistic children.

I have received this book as a gift. I was delighted by its style - easy to read and it has a friendly, warm approach. I am a professional in the autism world and can see that this will be really useful for all parents and carers, not only those who are adopters or foster carers. The book serves as a great introduction to the field. It contains the most important information about autism and about attachment problems, encouraging a thoughtful approach to parenting these children. I would also highly recommended it for professionals as an introduction text.

I heard about this book from Twitter. I'm a parent whose adoptive child has recently diagnosed with autism after a long battle with services. I've read other books about autism but so much of it has been written for birth parents who are raising their own child. It's hard when you have not known your child from the beginning, and when you're trying to work out which of his difficulties are due to his difficult early start. I found the information about autism helpful and logical. It's really made me think about how I can adjust my home and parenting style. It's made me more mindful of what makes my child feel anxious and the ways in which he shows this.