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09 May 2009, 6:55 pm

I read a book by Ann M Martin yesterday I got at a second hand store in town. The four year old boy in the book is autistic and the parents finally find a school for him and enroll him in it. They said how James might not like how he is going to have to change because no one likes to change and the mother said it be like her telling Lizzie (her daughter) she has to start walking on all fours now and telling her son he has to eat cabbage three times a day. Then they start working with James and to get him to talk and stuff and every time he eat regular food, they feed him a cherio which was his favorite food and one of the foods he only wanted to eat. The brother felt it was like training his little brother like a dog. It did seem that way. The father said should they all continue living that way or put him in a institution. They did mention institution in it because the book was published in 1984 and they were still doing it back then.



Lyriel
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09 May 2009, 7:40 pm

I'm not sure if I read that one.

I do remember one of the Baby-Sitter's Club books (also attributed to Ann M. Martin - though supposedly many were written by ghostwriters) featured an autistic savant child. She was able to play just about anything by ear on her piano after hearing it only once (I think she could sing with perfect pitch, too), and could tell you what day of the week any date fell on. However, she was otherwise non-verbal (when she did speak, it was in a monotone voice), and her IQ was estimated to be below 40.