AutismWeb Forum

In one night, I finished reading In The Eye Of the Hurricane by Juli C. Liske. http://www.amazon.com/EYE-HURRICANE-Jul ... 459&sr=1-1
I really enjoyed reading about the Liskes.
Juli's second son, Ben, is diagnosed with autism when he's two years old. He's completely nonverbal, out of control, and unreachable. At the time, the Liskes live in rural Kentucky where services for autistic children are nonexistant. They get a smattering of speech and play therapy from their local Early Intervention office, but it doesn't help their son any. In desperation, Juli reads all she can about the condition. She finds Catherine Maurice's book "Let Me Hear Your Voice". Maurice, who wrote under a pen name, recovered both of her children from autism through ABA (applied behavioral analysis). Maurice had money, access to therapists who were familiar with ABA, and the best life can offer. The Liskes have no such resources in their small rural town. Rather than give up, they craft their intensive at-home ABA program using Teaching Developmentally Delayed Children: The ME book by Dr. Lovaas who is widely credited with bringing ABA methodology to the public.
http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Developm ... 097&sr=1-1

Through their own determination, grit, and perserverance, the Liskes manage to get the very autistic child out of his own world, and into ours. The Liskes do this in a community where no one is implementing ABA. Those who have heard ABA discourage them from doing it. It's been my experience and Ms. Liske's experience that those who critize ABA the most are very unfamiliar with how ABA is practiced today.

This book should give hope to many people who lives in areas of the USA and elsewhere where ABA is not available. Just because you don't have professionals in your city or town who are familiar with ABA does not mean you cannot do an ABA program. Parents CAN put together a home program that's just as good as what is available in a professional center. The question is not can you afford to do it but rather can you afford not to do it? If this is something that you want to do, please read this book by Juli Liske so you too can put together an equally good behavioral program for your child. They put together an ABA program even though neither one of them is rich. They come from working class families. If they can do it really anyone can do it - that's their message.

Ben goes from being on the very low end of the autism spectrum to becoming a child that is gifted in reading and the arts. At the end of the book, he is six years old. He is fully conversational and social. It's a joy to read his story. I recommend this book to anyone who wants an uplifting book to read.