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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 618.92898203
EAN num: 9781843101444
ISBN number: 1843101440
Label: Jessica Kingsley Publishing houses
Manufacturer: Jessica Kingsley Publishing houses
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 64
Printing Date: 2003-07
Publishing house: Jessica Kingsley Publishing houses
Sale Popularity Level: 2223930
Studio: Jessica Kingsley Publishing houses
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Product Description:
Pauline Lukey very first met Ppinder Hundal when Ppinder was eight years old, at which point Ppinder was non-verbal and had no formal way of communicating. This account charts their development together as, through the use of facilitated communication techniques, Ppinder has become an eager and increasingly fluent communicator. Both authors recount their remarkable journey from Ppinder's early use of sign language, onto assisted typing (the title is the very first spontaneous phrase that Ppinder typed) and her ability now to discuss medication with her carers and converse, via laptop, with her friends.
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Sometimes three stars means that overall I like a book, but don't really see it as all that great, and it has significant bad points. Sometimes it means that overall I dislike it, but don't really see it as all that bad, and it has significant good points. This book is more straight down the middle -- neither good nor bad in particular.
It should be emphasized that this is a very short book. There are sixty-four numbered pages. Of those, forty-four constitute the main body of the book, which is in large print and contains several photographs and diagrams.
This book is primarily written by Pauline Lukey, who is Ppinder Hundal's staff. Excerpts of conversations with Hundal are interspersed in a different typeface and style. The book is a fairly straightforward description of Hundal's learning of language, starting with Signed English, which she became more fluent at with time, and moving on to facilitated communication with some independent pointing and typing. It also describes the various foster homes and group homes she moved through, and since Lukey was her foster parent for several years, it describes Hundal's adjustment to her home and the things she enjoyed.
I had a lot of questions when I read this book, but the book was not very self-examining, so none of them were really answered.
Hundal does office work and other jobs at a day program. Does she get paid whatever Canadian minimum wage is for her work, or is she, like many Americans in similar situations, being used for cheap labor under the name of promoting self-esteem? I used to attend a special ed school in which the autistic adults shredded paper, cooked, and did laundry, but were not paid. I also lived at a group home where we did both the light and heavy work taking care of the grounds but were at least paid minimum wage for it.
When Hundal lives in a group home as an adult, why are the staff called "parents"? When I lived in a group home, the staff weren't called "parents", and I didn't want them to be my parents. Is this something the clients at the group home chose, or is it something that makes the staff feel good about themselves and the adult clients look like children?
Why is one of Hundal's major goals in life, repeated through the book, to be a "good girl" and to "behave properly"? What kind of environment would cause an adult to adopt this as their major goal? I remember adults being told "good boy" and "good girl" when I was in special ed with them, to the point where this became an echolalic phrase, and I don't remember it fondly.
One of the interesting points in the book is seeing Hundal's interaction with other autistic people. She is very interested in Jim Sinclair's speech "Don't Mourn For Us", and in having books by Donna Williams read to her. She has conversations by laptop with an autistic person who's attended the same programs with her for years, but who had never been able to communicate with her before.
The resources section gives an international list of organizations dedicated to autism, facilitated communication, and augmentative communication, for the United Kingdom, Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Some of the resources are more useful than others.
But there are very few details in this book, and very little questioning of the environment in which it takes place. These are background, not foreground details. It makes me feel a little confined just to read it -- I remember a time when I thought my life would consist of going from one institution and day program to the subsequent my whole life, which is not a memory that I enjoy. This book, through not really questioning the environments, feels the same to me -- not a sense of trappedness generated by autism, but a sort of "trapped in the system" feel.
And, like that feeling of being in limbo, the book really isn't one place or the other. Neither great nor terrible, good nor bad. It's just kind of there, a description of events while almost unquestioning about the environment and viewpoints. As my own staff person said, "I hope Ppinder is getting some money for this book, because then it'd be okay, but I'd have to question things a bit more if she isn't." It's not horribly written. It's just short, from a primarily staff point of view, and more description-oriented than anything. If don't mind a book like this and want a book about an autistic woman starting out in facilitated communication, then you probably want this book.
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