Valerie Paradiz http://www.valerieparadiz.com

Elijah's Cup

Elijah's Cup: A Family's Journey into the Community and Culture of High Functioning Autism and Asperger's Syndrome

A Family's Journey into the Community and Culture of High-functioning Autism and Asperger's Syndrome

Sixty years ago, my father, the Austrian pediatrician, Hans Asperger, revealed the appealing and often overlooked qualities of these unusual children. He also showed how we even find some resonance of their difficult traits within ourselves. Now it's time for us to hear more directly the voice of autistic people and that of their parents. Valerie Paradiz has given us a precious gift of a book, full of her own experiences with her son.

—Maria Asperger, Child Psychologist

This provocative and pioneering book is both a refreshing exploration of the history of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and a powerful story of the author's own struggle with her son Elijah's Asperger's Syndrome.

From her first inklings of Elijah's difference to her discovery of a whole spectrum of another way of life that includes everything from civil rights organizations for autistics to Asperger artists, Valerie Paradiz describes how she decided to cross what she calls 'cultural boundaries' to overcome her fears about her son's condition. Her inspiring narrative offers compelling insights into daily life with Elijah's Asperger's syndrome and her own 'shadow syndrome', which affects many family members of autistics. It is also a celebration of the idiosyncratic beauty of the Asperger mind and the sense of mutual support and self-respect in the ASD community.

This revised edition includes a contribution from Elijah and a new chapter that brings the story up-to-date: the author successfully sets up a specialist educational unit for Asperger pupils, Elijah experiences his first two years of school, and the author's dawning recognition of her own Asperger's Syndrome leads to major life changes.

Elijah's Cup offers moving and insightful observations as well as factual information for parents and anyone working with people with ASDs.

 

Reviews

Publisher's Weekly: March, 2002

This expressive and deeply felt memoir explores how the diagnosis of the author's son, Elijah, with Asperger's syndrome (a high-functioning autism) changed her life. As a young child, Elijah had delays in language and motor skills, and also suffered seizures. Paradiz, an assistant professor of German studies at Bard College, details the subsequent dissolution of her marriage (although she and her ex-husband are now friends) and her own depression, events triggered by the problems of coping with Elijah's needs. After Paradiz hired a babysitter with Asperger's syndrome and read several accounts written by people diagnosed as autistic, she understood that her son was a visual rather than a verbal thinker. (According to the author, Albert Einstein and Andy Warhol both had Asperger's syndrome.) This realization led her to provide Elijah with the repetitive activities he needed to enjoy his life. She describes their time together at Autreat, a camp for autistics that emphasizes self-advocacy, an idea that has been rejected by more traditional parents and teachers, who believe that autistics cannot know their needs. This is a moving personal story that highlights a new way of thinking about people diagnosed as autistic.


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