Unravelling the world of an autistic child
View(s):Sri Lankan dramatherapist, Ravi Ranasinha unveiled the compilation of his latest work on autism at a recent house-packed book launch.
This invaluable, one-of-a-kind resource is designed to help parents detect early signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and related disorders and to take steps that can make a dramatic difference in a child’s life.
The author has delved deeply into this complex subject. Not only has he cited erudite, world-renowned authorities in this complicated field of study but has brought into play insightful reflections from parents, caregivers and teachers.
The book’s roots of action therapies alone provide a rich global background study of this important and often poorly understood subject.
But Ranasinha goes further, placing his own valuable contributions to the field within Sri Lanka’s historic, religious, and cultural context as well.
| Book facts Creative Arts Therapies for Autistic Children |
Whether it’s at school, work or in social settings, people with autism are often misconceived. They often suffer discrimination, intolerance and isolation, resulting in many feeling excluded from everyday society.
One is enlightened by various experts on the subject that autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that there is a wide degree of variation in the way it affects people.
Learning about the different autism spectrum disorders will help you better understand your own child, get a handle on what all the different autism terms mean, and make it easier to communicate with the doctors, teachers, and therapists helping your child.
The cases cited in the book will prove an invaluable asset to counsellors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, paediatricians and those who work as special needs educators.
The book’s various specialist studies agree and shatter the myth that autism is not, repeat not, a mental health disorder. Rather it is a neurological disorder.
Research on people afflicted with the disorder reveal abnormalities in brain structure and neurotransmitter levels.
Part of the reason it is so hard to separate mental illnesses from autism is that autism is still not fully understood and appears different in each person.
One person’s autism is nothing like another person’s autism. What it means is that a programme, classroom, therapy or social group event that works beautifully for one autistic person may be an utter disaster for another person with the identical diagnosis.
How do you make the world aware of a single disorder that can present itself so very differently in different individuals? How do you create policies, undertake research or provide services for a group of people who have radically different needs? How do you plan a school programme, provide therapies, or even access support when your situation is practically unique?
Of course the answer is there is no one autism and that issue lies at the heart of many of the problems experienced by members of the disparate group that is sometimes called the ‘autism community.’
The book provides a thoroughly researched, well-organised wealth of information for families, regardless of where they are on the continuum of healing our children while planning for their futures.
One is struck by how encompassing it is with regard to all of the possibilities for treatment.
It details the kinds of environmental stressors that contribute to the myriad health issues many of these children experience.
It imparts a comprehensive overview of the latest therapies and innovative treatment modalities to help you decide how they relate to the individual needs of your child.
The book is also peppered with first-hand cameos of resourceful parents, carers, and teachers and their struggles at outsmarting autism even when they were short of all resources.
That they succeeded to a large degree in achieving breakthroughs provides hope and inspiration to others in the community who despair at the prospect.
These are all heart-warming accounts that raise the spirit of readers and teach us to fight against seemingly insurmountable odds.
Besides, such anecdotes are all about standing beside your family in all circumstances. Above all, is the certainty that these stirring sagas of courage and perseverance will pay off someday.
If you know someone whose child was recently diagnosed or is interested in learning more about different therapies, this is the ideal book to give as a gift!
I am confident that it will give you guidance, as well as a better understanding of how to harness all of the information available, channelling it towards giving your family the best foundation possible to begin healing.