I would truly appreciate if any of you could offer me some book recommendations. I am just starting down this road of autism with my son.

I was also wondering if the Baby Bumblebee videos/dvd's are effective for non-verbal autistic children. I can't afford to purchase them in they don't have a high success rate.

Hello im new to autism also. I have just finnishes a good book I like called Keys to parenting a child with auitism. I like it alot im looking for another book called evidence of harm. Its suspose to be really good as weel. Its about vaccines though. Good luck.

Hi I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the book "Let Me hear your Voice" by Catherine Maurice. I feel the book saved my son's future. My son was very mildly affected by autism and he had started to make progress so I felt he really did not need ABA. After I read the book I realized that if your child needs help you need to do as much as you can as early as possible. The younger your child is the more effective early intervention will be.

Have you gone to your local library lately? My library has the Bumble Bee videos in the video section. Also at my library you can ask them and if they do not have a certain book or video they will get it from another library or order it for you. I have never used the video, but the library would be a great place to try it out before you decided to buy it.

I bought one Baby Bumble Bee viedo when my son was 18months. It was not ever effective for us. I was glad I only bought one. I bought the first three Signing Time videos when my son was about 30 months and they changed our lives. He went from having about 5 signs that had to be prodded out of him to over 30 signs that he used spontaneously within two weeks of watching the vidoes. The rest of my family enjoyed the signing time videos and it helped get them on board with using signs with my son.

My son will be four at the end of the month. He is finally starting to put sentences together. He doesn't currently use signs alot but he still enjoys watching the signing time vidoes and I feel that they have really help with his verbalization as well.

Thanks for the information regarding the Baby Bumble Bee. My son is 35 months old and he says 3 words with prompting...none spontaneoulsy and uses 2 signs with prompting. I will probably try the Signing Time videos because of your recommendation.

There are also some good signing flash cards I saw on ebay. I bought them too I hope to get them soon to try. I also got a new book today called Evedence of harm im starting to read. Im going to try the librbry as well.

The one book I've read that has helped THE MOST is written by a woman in England. It is "Playing, Laughing and Learning with Children on the Autism Spectrum" by Julia Moor. I found it on amazon. It talks specifically about how to organize play with young autistic children to develop comunication skills.

My mom found "The Everything Parent's Guide to Children with Autism" by Adelle Jameson Tilton. It is very basic and goes over many of the major concerns families with autistic children face.

Many of the books I've seen are either too technical or too specific for where we are at right now. Neither of the ones I mentioned above had problems with that, though.

Thanks for the information regarding the Baby Bumble Bee. My son is 35 months old and he says 3 words with prompting...none spontaneoulsy and uses 2 signs with prompting. I will probably try the Signing Time videos because of your recommendation.

Is he getting Early Intervention? I would ask for them to implement PECS if they haven't already. It has helped my son A LOT with communication.

Thanks for the many recommendations!!

He technically is not diagnosed with autism yet. He has lots of the 'red flags' for it but we have been met with a lot of resistance in having the professionals agree. We have an appointment with a pediatric neurologist on 6/3. I am hoping not to run into another brick wall.

He is getting Early Intervention. However, they only come out for speech therapy twice a month. They have not implemented PECS yet. I think because he is also delayed with his receptive language. This fall he will begin a preschool for children with disabilities so they may start at that time.

I have been attempting to teach sign to him. I have a degree is ASL interpretation. The problem is he also is delayed with fine motor skills.

Naomi, When I first suspected my son had Autism, I had done some internet searches and came across some information about Milk Allergy links to Autism. I read a book by Karyn Serroussi ( Unraveling the Mystery of Pervasive Developmental Disorder and Autism ) which talks about dietary changes that helped her son. There were alot of similarities between her son and mine. I decided to try the dietary intervention along with the services that were being provided by Early Intervention and today I have a different child. I recommend to anyone with a child who is showing RED FLAGS to try the Gluten Casien Free Diet. It doesn't work for everyone, but I really believe it worked for us and I have read on this board of others who feel it's been good for them too. The book I mentioned was a good read for me as I totally related to the story. I thank Karyn Seroussi ( the Author) every day. I think my son would have been more severely impacted if I had not found her story on the internet which was published in the Parents Magazine (Feb. 00) which then drew me to her book that I mentioned above.

If you haven't tried already, please look into the Gluten Casien Free Diet. I only hope that this information touches another family the way that Karyn Seroussi touched our lives. Best of Luck

I tend to read the books written by parents of autistic children more often than the more technical, scientific ones written by doctors. It helps me to be able to relate to the parents and what they're going through. I loved the book Elijah's Cup by Valerie Paradiz. Paradiz is the mother of a boy with Asperger's Syndrome and I was very inspired by her. If your son has Sensory Integration Dysfunction, the book The Out of Sync Child by Carol Kranowitz is very helpful. I also like Let Me Hear Your Voice by Catherine Maurice.

the baby bumblebee video's were great for our son. so many of his first words were from that video.

Thanks for the information regarding the Baby Bumble Bee. My son is 35 months old and he says 3 words with prompting...none spontaneoulsy and uses 2 signs with prompting. I will probably try the Signing Time videos because of your recommendation.

If I were you I would just buy the first one to start off. That way if they just don't do anything for your son you aren't out much. (They currently have 6. We own all 6 and really enjoy them.) I was able to borrow the DVDs from our early intervention program to preview them before I purchased them. That was great for me because I was a little hesitant to spend more money on DVDs that may or may not work.

The thing that was great about the Signing Time videos is that they show lmany children and babies using eac signs. My theory is that my son finally saw that a lot of people use signs. Signing wasn't just something his mom and speach therapist did in order to torment him. It also helped us see that his signing didn't have to be perfect in order for us to understand what he wanted. After seeing such a wide range of signers it was easier to interperate signs.