Have you benefitted from Tony Attwood?

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I'm trying to decide if I should fork out the money to go see Tony Attwood at an autism conference.

He and Temple Grandin. I've see her and it was useful at the time, but mainly I'm interested in learning from Tony Attwood.

Have you found his work helpful?

I want to learn how to support my son's learning better at school (his teacher is great but green and his Special Ed. teacher is a little slow on the uptake, so I want to make him supports and take them in) and at home.

I've his book " The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome ", but that's about it as for " Benefits ".

My father was so worried that I would get less of an education from special education that he bought me several sets of encylopedias, a series of kids books about science, and we watched a lot of PBS shows on nature, anthropology, and history. My father was also a book binder so he brought home tons of paperback books of sci-fi and fantasy for me to read. I also got into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition which had me reading at a college level by age 11 and my younger brother age 9.

Same here, Tony Attwood's book has been tremendously helpful to me! I would say, if you can swing the cost, do it!

I liked "Asperger's and Girls", though it was mainly a compilation of women w/ AS.

Attwood has a huge number of interviews and videos on youtube. Perhaps watching a few would give you a clearer idea whether or not his speaking style would be helpful to you.

The autism worker I work with criticizes Tony Attwood's "emotional toolbox" technique because it is very abstract and not adjusted to literal thinking. I agree with her. However, I find that Tony Attwood is generally very well informed about Asperger's, and I like his attitude towards it that he showed in his Complete Guide.

I did not like that book except for one excellent essay about romantic relationships, but each to their own.

Thanks for the advice about looking him up on YouTube!

Now, why didn't I think of that?

What I want is very specific information about things I can actually do with/for my son, not an overview of AS or autism in general.

Mathgirl--helpful, I'm going to see if I can find him speaking about this "emotional toolbox".

I just looked up a book that I bough about a year ago...its now been revised.
http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Raising- ... gy_b_img_b

Its called 1001 Great Ideas for Teaching and Raising Children with Autism or Aspergers....there are great ideas in that book. Not written by Attwood but by a Mother and Author. She also wrote 10 Things Every Child With Autism Wishes you Knew.

I have not benefitted from Tony, but he did get some money out of me. I bought his book. Autism is big business these days.

If he sends me $250, I will then have benefited from him.

He also should really give me back the three sessions worth of money I had there with his underlings (that's...60 x 3 = 180. 180 dollars), as it did nothing.

I'll take the $180 back and call it even.

I have benefitted from his book 'The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome'. I have also listened to him on podcasts and learned from him. One benefit you might get from going to see him is meeting other parents in the audience.

As for Temple Grandin, she has helped me a great deal. I've also read her book, 'The Way I See It'. It's sort of simply written (very short chapters), but I learned some very good info from it and was able to share some of it with my husband to help in our communication with one another.

There is also a presentation on you tube of hers that I found very helpful. It's over an hour long, fyi.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgEAhMEgGOQ&feature=related[/youtube]

His Guide was helpful to me.

Finally I've read something written by a non-autist that actually made sense and was recognizable.

After watching some YouTube videos of Tony Attwood, I still find myself on the fence about paying $90 to see him live.

I am, however, thrilled that I gave a brochure to my son's teacher, and the school is paying for her to attend. She's intuitive and gets Tenzin, but I want her to take a special interest in autism and see it like I do. Seeing Tony Attwood is as close to my own perspective as she'll get.

It looks like he's one of the pioneers of neurodiversity, one of the first to recognize autism not as a disability but a difference.

I'm not going. Thanks to Wuffles, I choose to watch him on YouTube for free and keep the $90 it would cost to hear him speak live.

If I went, it would be to get some chearleading as I already think like he does. I don't need to pay for that.

I'm going to use the $ to get my boy his own digital camera since that's his current special interest.

Thanks to all for weighing in!! !

I really don't know whether I have benefitted from reading Attwood's guide or not.
I was myself and living in my own mind before I read the guide.
I am an expert on myself, like everyone else, I'm an expert on myself, but still don't know myself.
I am a bit uncomfortable with the idea that my internal experience can be defined by someone observing from the outside. Also the idea that personal experiences can be given names and labels. I don't know about labels, but I know that there are many labels.

Can anything ever be "The Complete Guide"?

I'm now uncomfortable with the notion that there can a "Complete Guide" to anything.
The Guide is never completed. It's a comprehensive "What we believe that we know so far."
Guide. It's useful to many people, but essentially incomplete. I think that it's good that I'm now becoming uncomfortable with complete guides to life. I used to read "Complete Revision Guides" before exams: it's a convenient illusion of completeness and knowing.

What about a "Continually Evolving Guide"?
A guide that can be added to over time.
A guide not made out of physical paper at all.
An electronic guide?
A person who isn't made out of paper?

Maybe a guide is someone who guides rather than an absolute book of knowledge.
The guide is learning all the time.
This learning doesn't end: it's never complete.