Did you read the part off limits to autisitics? All interested now.
And what was her name?!
Her name is Collette de Bruin
She uses
who, what, where, when, and how, to explain the world. In itself really practical and all. It's the way she writes about it, that got me fuming. I could see the practical impact of her approach, and that it was a better approach to look at problems with someone on the spectrum as a problem that was there for a reason. The explanation and the assumptions about autistic people she did in the side information, like saying the "why" question can hardly ever be discussed with someone on the spectrum, and the whole programming attitude that comes with it, got me get a really dirty taste in my mouth reading her book.
And the examples she used. I remember one example of a little kid seeing his Mum in tears, and he asks her what is wrong. So, his Mum tells him she has a heartache. The little boy asks if it is because of the fries Mum had eaten, and if she had taken her heart tablets.
To Collette, it was clear that this little boy had no empathy, and was not appropriately reacting to his Mum, and had no emotional connection with her either. To me, it was a story about a sweet young kid, that does not know the meaning of the word "heartache" and who is worried, because his Mum is using hearttablets.
Been a few years since I read the book. Was not a book that made me happier, despite the fact that she did have some very practically sound ideas.