A truly impactful, necessary book.
A remarkable new approach to autism.
The key to successfully connecting with and helping children with autism is deceptively simple: don’t make assumptions, ask them questions about their feelings and behavior, listen closely to their responses, and try to understand the reasoning behind their actions. A little bit of empathy and respect goes a long way. The traditional methods of understanding and treating autism may be more harmful than we thought, argues leading autism expert Prizant (co-author: The SCERTS Model, 2005, etc.). Attempts to “normalize” children or to expect them to understand complex social and moral nuances may, in fact, prove detrimental to their happiness and impede their abilities to interact with others. Rather than suffering from an intellectual disability, the author writes, these children struggle with what he calls a “disability of trust.” From their perspective, adults often make statements that are not strictly true or that omit information that most of us take for granted but that a child with autism perceives as vital. Many conflicts that arise may be caused by this type of “misunderstanding,” in which the rules, especially social ones, are not outlined in comprehensive detail. Backed by cogent, compassionate anecdotes drawn from his many years in the field, Prizant also points out that many of the behaviors that people without autism may label as odd—like echolalia—stem from a child’s attempt to cope with a stressful situation, such as overstimulation or frustration at not being able to communicate their feelings or needs. Instead of dismissing these “regulating” behaviors as weird or even unacceptable, adults should embrace them as constructive methods by which children can return to homeostasis. By admitting, “it’s not you, it’s me,” we can reorient the way we perceive and embrace people with autism, helping them live joyous, meaningful lives. As the author wisely notes, we must embrace their uniquely human experience, not subvert it.
A truly impactful, necessary book.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4767-7623-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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