THE ULTIMATE STRANGER: The Autistic Child

by Carl H. Delacato ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 1974

Alien and afraid, the ultimate stranger is the autistic child, and this book is based on the 20 years Doctor of Education Delacato has spent at Glenn Doman's Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential where he helped formulate their system of treatment based on sensory responses, hyper or hypo. His first period was spent in disproving certain contentions re the autistic child (as one born to a ""refrigerator mother"" or classified as psychotic). Delacato firmly believes that the autistic child is organically damaged and that his sensory responses are flawed, whether visual, tactile, auditory, etc. The program he uses treats the particular problem (whether not exposing the hyperauditory child to noises or stimulating the hearing of the hypoauditory child) and there is, of course, a broader schema of education and orientation we have read about in various personal experiences of children at this facility. He also includes some of his own casework, discusses other therapies, drugs (still a conjectural area) and nutrition (another special approach). The book has value for those working with autistic children and certainly parents thereof, and there's a sizeable bibliography of books of a technical nature. Inevitably there is none of the sharp personal affect of Clara Park's The Siege (1967) or Josh Greenfeld's A Child Called Noah (1972) -- the two most stirring accounts of that Child in the Glass Ball, Karin Junker's first book on the subject.

Pub Date: May 10, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION