Playing, Laughing and Learning with Children on the Autism Spectrum: A Practical Resource of Play Ideas for Parents and Carers Second Edition

Anyone with a child on the autism spectrum knows why this book was written! I found it while surfing Amazon and was hoping it would contain the answers I was looking for -- and it really does! The book offers parents very specific suggestions of how to involve and motivate their child in interactive play and it's easy for the parents/caregivers to understand how to adjust for their child's specific spectrum disorder. My son has PDD-NOS and I feel much clearer on how to approach play with him now that I've read the book. The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 star rating is because the book was written in England and therefore contains unavailable resources for people outside the UK and the author occassionally uses different and possibly unfamiliar terminology for non-Brit readers. It's still worth the read!

This book is about learning how to work, act, and play with a child on the spectrum. The book is written in plain english, which makes it very easy to understand and incoperate the play ideas. I enjoyed this book. However my few critisms are that some of the links and references in the back of the book are mostly UK sites. Also, if you want to learn more about behavioral modification programs like ABA or TEACCH techniques, this is not the book for you. Basically, this book gives the reader creative ideas of how to interact with an autistic child. This book is great for parents and therapists. Its a book i think everyone should read, whether you have an autistic child or not. There are several useful ideas, even working with "typical" children.

I've been reading books about autism and play for a long time, but this book so far was the best, I have been struggling to find something to help me with my son but actually explaining more about play and how Autistic minds work than just giving ideas, she gives ideas but in a way that makes sense of how autistic kids think. It's not just about saying play bubbles with the kids but how to introduce the bubbles and how would make more sense to them, sometimes the books just give ideas but not making us understand things so we can have our own ideas, I so appreciate this book and recommending it to my sons teacher to tell other parents about.

I am a speech-language pathologist who works with autistic children and the mother of an autistic child. I found this book to have good information. It isn't too clinical, so a parent without specialized training could easily follow the advice offered. Play is so important for children with autism, but it is hard to know what to do when a child isn't interested in interacting with you. This book gives excellent advice on how to get a child to want to play with you.

Our son started showing autistic tendencies at 12 months. He's now 16 months and I've had a hard time coming up with ways to play with him and teach him. I thought this book would help, and it had a few ideas that would work for a younger child, but most of them are for at the very least a 2 year old. It will be a great tool to have in the future, but I was hoping for more workable ideas for a younger child.

When I scanned through the previews of this book online, I knew it would be helpful. Otherwise I wouldn't have bought it. But now being able to browse through the whole book and read it cover to cover (both of which I'm doing) I see what a fantastic resource it is. It is full of helpful information, tips, strategies, and it is the exact book I have been looking for to figure out how to play with my 2 yr old with Autism. Once I can put some things in place it will be much more rewarding for all of us.

I have an autistic son who is 4 years old now. He was diagnosed when he was 2 1/2 years old and I wish I had bought this book right from the start. There are so many great ideas and it's pratical for a child that's anywhere on the spectrum. The great thing about the activities are that they can be adapted and modified to your specific child. I would recommend this for sure to any parent or teacher with an autistic child.

I think this is a good book for a parent who is looking for ideas on how to interact with his/her child with ASD. If you're an educator, clinician, or other person who works with children with ASD, it might be less helpful (and maybe even a little repetitive if you compare some activities to one another).

Lots of great ideas.

I was lent this book from portage early learning services who come around to help my 3 year old autistic son. I got about halfway through it and decided I needed to purchase it. It has practical advice from a mother of an autistic boy who completed studies and worked with other families. As any parent of an autistic child would know every child is different. She starts at the very basic and gives suggestions for more advanced things. She says what worked for other families but perhaps not her. There is a wide variety of games you can create at home that are aimed in some way to educate and everything is adaptable to the individual child and helps get you thinking about what it is that your child would respond to. I have also bought a copy for my sons childminder as it will not only help her working with my son, but there is also a wide variety of ideas for games. Everything is separated into different areas (ie outdoor play, music (or coping with it) etc) I have found it incredibly helpful. At this point parts of it are far too advanced for my son, but I am going to use it as a point of reference for the future. I would highly recommend to any parent, family member or carer of an autistic child.

This has been a very informative and interesting book to read as part of my dissertation research.

This is the only book I have managed to find that offer some really clear, well laid out practical advice about ways to help ASD children. I was not able to afford ABA but am capable and motivated and this book provides clear steps on how to play, find resources and uses them effectively. One description of an activity taught my son to say GO his first word that led him to become verbal eventually. If you want to do something, get it. Especially for middle to high functioning.

Great ideas in this book ideas for how to play games with autistic children. How to learn children with them and have fun as well. Great book, Great advice. Good value for money as well. This book is really helpful for parents to teach their children that is on the autism Spectrum. To teach them in a different way than the usual children. As they play and learn differently because their thinking different to them. Too good to miss!