I think starting a book club for the New Year is a great incentive to peruse new books and gain perspectives from others reading the same book. A New Year brings goals and lists of things to do. I will be doing a theme each time with three books to choose from.

The reasoning behind having three books to select from is that this is my favorite number, having been so for as long as I can remember. My birthday is April 3rd, I am the oldest of three children and my family is comprised of three.

For those new to this site, Autism Spectrum Disorders has a weekly chat each Sunday afternoon. I send out the weekly Newsletter on weekends, although when media events occur during the week I will send out a newsletter alerting readers.

Suggestions are welcome in advance for future book picks. I would like to showcase Asperger's Syndrome and PDD-NOS one month with books relevant to these areas of the Spectrum. Another time period would focus on therapies with books discussing various methodologies. A following selection period could be on teens and youth with another time devoted to books suitable for children and siblings.

Feel free to Contact me through the site with your comments on selections and topics of discussion. At the start of each selection period, a new article will be posted with the selection.

Here you can find my published Book Reviews, including books written by children, and those on the Autism Spectrum. If at all possible I would like to get the authors involved in joining the chat room when we have discussions on their books to gain further insight and assist families further.

January 2006

I will update theses chat events in the newsletter and hope this can be arranged. The January 2006selections are all new books released in 2005:

1. Diagnosis Autism: Now What? 10 steps to Improve Treatment Outcomes
A Parent-Physician Team Approach - Lawrence P. Kaplan, PhD, edited by Jay D. Burstein, MD.

Larry is a parent of a child with ASD as well as the Executive Director of the US Autism & Asperger Association (USAA), located in Utah. New members of this non-profit organization receive a Complimentary copy of the book and a 10% discount on the first conference retreat to be held August, 2006. Visit www.usautism.org for more information and to sign up for their informative newsletter.



2. 1001 Great Ideas for Teaching and Raising Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders - Ellen Notbohm and Veronica Zysk. Ellen is the parent of a child with autism and columnist for Autism Asperger's Disgest. Veronica is the Managing Editor of Autism Asperger's Digest available through Future Horizons Inc. I have reviewed several books published by Future Horizons and find them to be great resources. The site is at www.FutureHorizons-autism.com



3. Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew - Ellen Notbohm. This book is based on the article of the same name originally published in South Florida Parenting, November of 2004.



These three books are perfectly suited to start the New Year off with your autism reading. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these books as we read them now through the next six or so weeks. I will try to have this done every 6-8 weeks.


Beat Boredom Blues by Playing games based on Autism Terminology

After having difficulty trying to read through three books in one month I have revised the Book Club to consist of only one book to read.