Archive for the 'Autism' Category

Lights! Camera! Autism! 2: Using Video Technology to Support New Behavior

Published May 30, 2013 Autism , Cambridge Book Review , CBR Press Leave a Comment
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Coming June 2013
Cambridge Book Review Press

LCA2cover

Lights! Camera! Autism! 2:
Using Video Technology to Support New Behavior

Kate McGinnity, Sharon Hammer, and Lisa Ladson
Foreword by Kathy Kaebisch, MS, CCC-SLP
Supplemental DVD included

Publ. date: June 14, 2013
Preorder from Amazon or PayPal

$25.00

“Lights! Camera! Autism! 2 will help educators and parents alike, and support an environment that is proactive and based on each individual’s strengths and needs. The solutions are proven to be successful. I couldn’t wait to go back to my district and share the book with staff and parents.”—Brian Johnson, Student Services Director, Columbus School District, Columbus, Wisconsin.

“Lights! Camera! Autism! 2 is a gift without measure to parents at any stage of their autism journey. A few minutes spent reading and watching and I was able to create a tool that lifts my son’s anxiety, sorts out some of the confusion he faces, and enables both of us to feel successful. This is a resource I will share with every person who plays a role in my son’s life.”—Rebecca Williams, former elementary school teacher, and proud mom of an incredible, unique, loving, and challenging autistic son.

“There is something powerful that happens when the brain gets to watch the body doing something right. The learning sinks in. New behavior sets up with speed. McGinnity, Hammer and Ladson provide concrete examples for helping people ‘see’ better ways to behave by showing us concretely how to improve our instruction.”—David Pitonyak, Ph.D., consultant for people with challenging behaviors and the needs of their friends, family and caregivers (www.dimagine.com).

“These videos offer an innovative way of training people with special needs to encounter new situations. One of the many challenges people with autism and other disabilities face is how to encounter the ‘unknown’ and generalize social rules across situations. Video is a great platform to help a person understand what a new environment will be like, whether it be a new school, a camping trailer, or a playroom.”—Stephen Hinkle, national speaker and disability rights advocate.

“Lights! Camera! Autism! 2 offers tangible and doable approaches to break out of the way things have always been done. Teachers, parents, and individuals with autism have everything to gain from bringing these tools to life.”—Tamar Jacobsohn, MS Ed, autism program support teacher with over 20 years’ experience in early childhood special education.

About the Authors

Kate McGinnity is an experienced classroom teacher and trainer, and nationally recognized consultant in the field of autism.

Sharon Hammer is a master’s level psychotherapist with over 15 years’ experience working with individuals on the autism spectrum.

Lisa Ladson is an educational and behavioral consultant with extensive knowledge in creating innovative intervention programs for students with complex learning challenges.

“Don’t We Already Do Inclusion?”: 100 Ideas for Improving Inclusive Schools

Published January 3, 2013 Autism , CBR Press Leave a Comment
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New from Cambridge Book Review Press

Cover to sizeA1 copy“Don’t We Already Do Inclusion?”: 100 Ideas for Improving Inclusive Schools
By Paula Kluth

Illustrations by Allison Fiutak.

Foreword by Carol Quirk, Ed.D., Co-Executive Director of the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education.

$24.00. Buy from PayPal or Amazon.

“Paula Kluth has done it again! A lively, practical and engaging how-to book on creating inclusion. Her focus is on all of us, teachers, students, staff, principals, district and community members, reminding us that inclusion, as with all social justice, is about joint action and commitment. Tons of practical ideas and examples presented in her inimitable style. Hurrah!”—Anne M. Donnellan, Ph.D., Director of the University of San Diego Autism Institute; Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Paula Kluth’s enthusiasm is contagious and the structure of her new book is revolutionary.”—Barbara Buswell, Executive Director, PEAK Parent Center, Colorado.

“Implementation science at its best. Paula Kluth reminds us of the importance of regularly revisiting our mission to create schools where everyone belongs.”—Mary C. Schuh, Ph.D., National Center on Inclusive Education, Institute on Disability, University of New Hampshire.

“An outstanding guide, packed with strategies and tips. Paula Kluth has created a remarkable resource for schools and communities that want to renew or improve their inclusive practices.”—Nicole Eredics, Inclusion Specialist (www.theinclusiveclass.com).

Dr. Paula Kluth is a consultant, author, and advocate dedicated to supporting inclusive education in preschool, elementary, and high schools. Paula is a former special educator who has served as both a classroom teacher and inclusion facilitator. She is the author or co-author of numerous books on inclusive education including, “You’re Going to Love This Kid!”: Teaching Students with Autism in the Inclusive Classroom, and “A Land We Can Share”: Teaching Literacy to Students with Autism. Visit her website at www.paulakluth.com.

Coming June 2012 from CBR Press

Published May 8, 2012 Autism , CBR Press Leave a Comment
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Autism: Sensory-Movement Differences and Diversity
Martha R. Leary and Anne M. Donnellan 

First Time in One Volume:
Leary and Donnellan’s influential works on
autism and sensory-movement differences

“If we follow the lead offered here we will not only have a model of the discipline we must cultivate, we will also have the support of people with disabilities as full partners in the difficult search for better understanding. Leary and Donnellan carefully note anomalies, irregularities likely to be ignored or explained away in routine practice: irregularities such as the many accommodations people with disabilities and those who care about them have invented beneath the notice of the professionals who ordinarily control their treatment. The authors rigorously deconstruct the myth of mental capacity.”—John O’Brien, author (with Connie Lyle O’Brien) of Members of Each Other: Building community in company with people with developmental disabilities.

“The trend of our best work in behavioral difficulties has been to move from coercion and control to understanding and accommodation. Martha Leary and Anne Donnellan have made a crucial advance with their groundbreaking research.”—Herbert Lovett, author of Learning to Listen: Positive approaches and people with difficult behavior.

About the Authors

Martha R. Leary, MA, CCC-SLP, is a Speech and Language Pathologist who has learned from people with autism and their supporters and their families for over 30 years. She has lectured extensively in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia and England. Her highly acclaimed writings with David Hill, Jodi Robledo and Anne Donnellan, present alternative ways of viewing the symptoms of sensory and movement differences which may affect our understanding of people with communication differences and unconventional behaviors. Martha continues to learn from people with unusual support needs. She consults with people and their teams through organizations that focus on personalized positive supports.

Anne M. Donnellan, Ph.D., is a Professor in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego as well as Professor Emerita at Wisconsin-Madison. A long-time member of the Professional Advisory Panel of the Autism Society of America, she is also on the Board of the Autism National Committee and active with TASH. She has published some 100 books, articles, chapters and monographs and has lectured throughout the world. She is currently co-host of the Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience special issue, Autism: The Movement Perspective. Her career spans over 40 years of training, research, and advocacy work on behalf of children and adults with communication and behavior challenges.

Book cover design: Dan Parent

Lights! Camera! Augie! Lucas!

Published August 6, 2011 Autism , CBR Press Leave a Comment
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The Cambridge News
July 24, 2011

Local Launchpad competitors write song for book on autism
By Elizabeth Ann Hulick

Lucas Bielejewski and August McGinnity-Wake, two Cambridge high school musicians, recently contributed a song for a book by Kate McGinnity (also of Cambridge), Sharon Hammer, and Lisa Ladson.

August McGinnity-Wake & Lucas Bielejewski

Based on their strong musicianship, writing and producing skills, Bielejewski and McGinnity-Wake were selected to contribute a song to accompany the book entitled Lights! Camera! Autism!: Using video technology to enhance lives. They wrote and recorded “(A) Wish For You,” which is included on the DVD, and can be downloaded on McGinnity-Wake’s band page on Facebook.

Lights! Camera! Autism! is published by Cambridge Book Review Press, a locally operated publishing house run by Bob Wake.

John Lehman, of rosebudbookreviews.com wrote of the book, “This is an outstanding book for everyone who knows someone on the spectrum. It explores how people with autism learn and how we can adapt to help.”

Bielejewski and McGinnity-Wake’s talents were also put on display last April in Sun Prairie for Launchpad, an annual competition sponsored by the Wisconsin Foundation for School Music. Only 15 bands were selected to participate in Launchpad for the three top prizes. Bands from throughout the region are represented.

As Launchpad’s Web site explained, “Launchpad is a statewide, alternative music competition for Wisconsin high school students who are in bands formed outside of the traditional music classroom ensembles. Launchpad and other Wisconsin School Music Association (WSMA) programs help young people discover and expand their full music potential.”

Launchpad is produced by Dennis Graham Associates. Graham is also a Cambridge resident.

Lights! Camera! Autism!: Using video technology to enhance lives includes a DVD supplement and can be ordered from cbrpress.com and Amazon.com.

Now on Kindle

Published June 5, 2011 Autism , CBR Press Leave a Comment
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Walk Awhile in My Autism by Kate McGinnity & Nan Negri has been a consistent seller for CBR Press since the book’s publication in 2005. Over 3,500 copies have been sold through workshops and online. We’re pleased to announce that Walk Awhile in My Autism is now available as a Kindle ebook from Amazon.com.

“A must for every parent, every professional and every child who lives with autism. Buy it. Read it. Love it.”—Anne M. Donnellan, Ph.D., Director of the University of San Diego Autism Institute, and Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“I especially liked the quotes from people with autism, Planet Autism, and the visual, auditory and tactile exercises to simulate the sensory problems of people with autism. The main thing is all the exercises people can do so teachers, parents, and others can experience how a person with autism senses and feels the world.”—Temple Grandin, Associate Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, and author of Emergence: Labeled Autistic, and Thinking in Pictures.

Coming soon from CBR Press

Published June 2, 2011 Autism , CBR Press Leave a Comment
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Lights! Camera! Autism! by Kate McGinnity, Sharon Hammer, and Lisa Ladson

$25.00. Buy from PayPal or Amazon.

Using video technology to enhance lives. Supplemental DVD included.

“Lights! Camera! Autism! challenged me with its many rich ideas, clear and compelling examples, and positive and ever-encouraging voice. It is not only a user-friendly guide, it is also a call to action. Throughout the book, the authors quietly suggest that we think differently about autism and about support. They also show us how to calm, support, encourage, teach, and challenge students with this one simple tool and they compel us to use it often and widely.”—from the Foreword, by Paula Kluth, Ph.D., author of You’re Going to Love This Kid!: Teaching students with autism in the inclusive classroom.

“This is an amazing book. The authors do what so many in the autism industry fail to do: they nest their suggestions in a solid understanding of the literature on sensory-movement differences that people with autism tell us circumscribe their experience and their performance. From iPads to iPhones, Flip videos to skyping, social networking to TV shows, they guide us through example after example of ways to use technology to truly personalize supports and accommodate the unique needs of individual learners in real life situations.” —Anne M. Donnellan, Ph.D., Director of the University of San Diego Autism Institute; Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It is essential for self-advocates, professionals and family members to have consistent access to learning technology information that is evolving faster than one can keep up with. This person-centered, wonderful book clearly accomplishes just that. I couldn’t put it down and you won’t either. Lights! Camera! Autism! heralds a new realm of achieving learner participation in the classroom and the community.” —Patrick Schwarz, Ph.D., National-Louis University, Chicago, author of From Disability to Possibility: The power of inclusive classrooms, and co-author with Paula Kluth of three books, You’re Welcome, Just Give Him the Whale, and Pedro’s Whale. 

“A must-have for all who want to work with, rather than work on, people with autism differences, supporting them to be all they wish to be in this world. Lights! Camera! Autism! explains how to use the power of visual technology across environments in an easy to read, pick-up-and-implement format.” —Judy Endow, MSW, author of Making Lemonade: Hints for autism’s helpers, and Paper Words: Discovering and living with my autism.

“Arguably the most extensive, readable, and clearly written book on using video technology for individuals on the autism spectrum.” —Jane Pribek, parent, and Events Coordinator, Autism Society of Wisconsin.

“An invaluable reference tool and guide for anyone wanting to support and empower individuals with autism at home, in school, and in the community.” —Michael D. Shoultz, Ph.D, educational and behavioral consultant with more than 30 years of experience in the field of autism.

God, Seed: Poetry & Art About the Natural World

Published October 17, 2010 Autism , Literature , Memoir , Poetry 3 Comments
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Lavish is the word that comes to mind when beholding God, Seed: Poetry & Art About the Natural World (Tebot Bach, 2010) by poet Rebecca Foust and artist Lorna Stevens. Well established in their respective mediums, Foust and Stevens’ collaboration in God, Seed is one of those felicitous combustions of text (forty-three poems) and illustration (thirty full-color images) that result in a brilliant hothouse hybrid.

Readers should prepare themselves for sensory overload if not an outright short-circuit when experiencing a two-page spread of, say, Stevens’ lush eye-popping watercolor of a parsimmon opposite Foust’s sensual accompanying poem, “Parsimmons” (“ … rich river pudding, plush and pulp, / soft-slide swallow delight / and sweet, sweet”).

Conversely, later on, we are chilled to the bone by Stevens’ austere black brushwork depicting galloping bison that mimics the timeless mysteries of a prehistoric cave drawing. Foust’s chastising poem is “Last Bison Gone” (“We love what we love / in the scientific way, efficient, empiric, / vicious, too much …). Thus are the contrasting poles of God, Seed established: rapturous pleasure in nature’s bounty on the one hand, while, on the other, rapacious misuse and abuse of all that humanity surveys.

Rebecca Foust’s poetry has always struck at the heart of hard truths. Her first two tough-minded chapbooks (consecutive winners of the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize in 2007 and 2008) were reviewed favorably in our online pages. Dark Card, Foust’s debut, shook a righteous fist at doctors and gods alike for the plight of her son, diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. Mom’s Canoe, the follow-up, bracingly recaptured the poet’s own childhood growing up in the depressed strip-mining region of western Pennsylvania.

Although ostensibly casting a wider impersonal net in God, Seed, it is a testament to Foust’s raw unflinching truth-telling that a poem like “Frog”—about genetically mutated amphibians in a PCB-poisoned pond—spirals instead toward the son whom we remember from Dark Card:

Still, sleeping,
I dreamt of my son,
his genes expressed

not as autism, but as
four thumbs on two
extra hands

and I want to blame
someone. I want
to drain that pond.

God, Seed respects and encourages full immersion in the world—politically and personally—an attainable if too often lost connection to our surroundings. The poem “Now,” for instance, erases all borders between our bodies and nature’s enraptured seasonal rebirth: “… places in the body’s uncharted waters, new worlds / lying green and deep off winter’s bow // and now, spring. Bone-ache thaw, wind sough / through snow-scoured woods, bud swell …”

And yet, lest we fall prey to the ecstasy of hubris, the final poem in Foust and Stevens’ God, Seed, “Perennial,” gives nature the last word by writing us out of the picture altogether: “When you’re gone, it won’t matter to the musk rose / twining the old trellis over the eaves. Willow / will continue to pour her yellow-green waterfall // next to forsythia, one half-tone better on the scale / of bright …”

Judy Endow profile in New York Times

Published April 8, 2010 Autism Leave a Comment
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Cambridge Book Review Press author Judy Endow (Making Lemonade: Hints for Autism’s Helpers) was recently profiled in the New York Times. Story includes photos and an audio interview. Congratulations, Judy!

Two CBR Press Works Cited

Published February 28, 2010 Autism Leave a Comment
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A significant article in the latest issue of Disability Studies Quarterly, “Rethinking Autism: Implications of Sensory and Movement Differences” by Anne Donnellan, David Hill, and Martha Leary, cites two of our Cambridge Book Review Press titles: Walk Awhile in My Autism (2005) by Kate McGinnity & Nan Negri, and Making Lemonade: Hints for Autism’s Helpers (2006) by Judy Endow.

Caffeine & Other Stories by Bob Wake

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