Press reviews for: Discovering My Autism
Educational Psychology in Practice
In this book, Schneider explains that the discovery of his autism has improved the quality of his life because it has enabled him to understand himself more clearly and to explain his characteristics to others, so that they, too, may understand him more clearly and the way he relate more clearly. In writing this book, Schneider seeks to inform not only the nature of autism and difficulties faced by children and adults with autism, but also about the impact that the medical profession can have on individuals' lives, especially when inaccurate diagnoses are made. He also emphasizes, very strongly, the positive aspects of autism and their effects on his life. By this, I think that he is hoping to offer reassurance to adults and young people that it is possible to live a very successful and satisfying life, if only individuals can understand themselves/and the effect that their own autism is having on their personality and their relationships.
Disability Studies Quarterly
Reading Schneider's memoir, the argument about accommodating people with disabilities from a literacy standpoint kept running through my head.
Times Educational Supplement Special Needs magazine
Edgar Schneider is a highly articulate former mathematician and computer programmer. He discovered his autism in middle age, after being misdiagnosed as schizophrenic for many years. Schneider's detailed and dispassionate account of his autism deserves a wide audience. He explains his life as an emotional loner, his need to intellectualise feelings such as love in order to experience them, and his use of his self-knowledge to help others in a way that will inform and enlighten those concerned with high-functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome. He describes the implications of his emotional deficit, comparing it to a missing faculty such as blindness. It is a moving and inspiring book. By the end, one understands a great deal more about Schneider's 'country'.
FEAT
I loved this book! I would recommend it to anyone looking for an inside view written from a fresh perspective. Not only does Ed give an inside view, but I learned many, many helpful things besides. If you liked Temple Grandin's books, you will love this one!
Child Language Teaching and Therapy
The exceptional value of this book is not only that it offers an in-depth insight into autism through a first-hand testimony of someone who has been living with it but also in what it may lead us to discover. Hence it is highly recommendable to parents of autistic children, who may find some explanation as to why their children behave the way they do. It should be read by autistic individuals, who may see themselves in it, which will raise their awareness of who they are. It should also be read by clinicians and students of human communication and its disorders, because it will broaden their understanding of what their patients feel and experience, but may not always be able to talk about, and certainly researchers in the field will find it an excellent resource of challenge to the various theories of autism, the question of where the boundaries of the autistic spectrum are, the problems of generalizability, opening further paths as to how to approach and judge the writings of such highly able and intelligent individuals and how to define and specify the complex notion of "autism".