Autistic Children: A Working Diary

By Florence Ann Milnes Kozak

Autistic Children: A Working Diary is a chronicle of one woman's experiences with autism, a severely incapacitating and mysterious syndrome of unknown cause and cure. The author is a mental health worker who is able to describe, with sensitivity, compassion, and humor, just what it is like to work with autistic children. Her experience derives from two distinctive therapeutic situations which reflected different theoretical approaches to the treatment of autism.
The main character of the first section of the book is Karen, an autistic four-year-old with whom. Florence Kozak worked in one-on-one sessions. At that time it was believed, following the theories of Bruno Bettelheim, that autism was a severe emotional disturbance, and her diary of those sessions reflects that belief. The second section records her work, six years later, in a group home for six autistic boys and mirrors the current medical consensus that autism is a disease of the central nervous system.
This book is important to those who work with autistic children because Kozak emphasizes "observing the child, observing without, at least in the beginning, labeling or judging. This patient observa-tion, a skill rarely taught or valued these days, leads me to an intimate awareness of the other, and consequently of the other's needs. If I want to know how best I can help this child, I must not rush in with my ready-made theories and answers; I must first see this child. It sounds very simple; it is not."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822953838
• ISBN13: 9780822953838
• Release Date: October 1986
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.0"