Cutting-Edge Therapies for Autism & Point to Happy: a book for kids on the autism spectrum

© Flickr User BLW Photography

Today concluded Autism Awareness Month (and April) and I wanted to squeeze in these two books that I only recently was sent. I have always been interested in Autism, although I'm not sure exactly why. None of my family or friends are autistic or have autistic children. I have met autistic children but my interest is from when I was a teenager, before I ever met an autistic child.

Perhaps it's the fact that there are so many ideas about it's cause and how to treat it. I find it intriguing that something can affect so many children without us having a better idea of it's cause. I've read books on Autism and articles and even did research on my own as a teenager. I don't spend time researching it anymore but if I come across a mention of something on autism, I will read it. So as such I've heard of many different therapies for autism.

Cutting-Edge Therapies for Autism 2011-2012 by Ken Siri and Tony Lyons (Stars: *****) has the most comprehensive list of therapy ideas for autism I've ever seen and it will be updated every year in April. This is the second edition so far and it already has 25 more chapters than last year, plus other updates. If you are familiar with autism therapies a bit, you may have heard of ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis), music therapy, occupational therapy and psychotropic medications. However have you heard of Craniosacral and Chiropractic therapy, Melatonin Therapy for sleep problems or Technological-Based Interventions for Autism - There's an app for that!

Also included is a list of organizations and schools for kids on the autism spectrum, but it's mostly American since that's where the book was published. There are some international organizations and five Canadian schools listed though.

Point to Happy: a book for kids on the autism spectrum by Miriam Smith and Afton Fraser (Stars: ****) is a book to encourage communication skills and provide visual support in autistic children. With beautiful photographs by Margo Smithwick and an attached pointer, the parent can read the words and the child can attempt to point to the answer.

e.g. The boy is happy. Point to happy. The boy is sad. Point to sad. 

There is a place to add a picture of your child's favourite food to the foods page and a whole section for you to add photos of four people important to the child and their names. I don't work with autistic children but I can imagine it would work well.

*I was sent these books in the hopes that I'd review or mention them. No monetary compensation was provided. All opinions are honest and are not affected by how I acquired the item.

Rubber Balls & Liquor Available April 26 - Check it out!

WARNING: Videos contain adult humour. Proceed at your own risk.

Rubber Balls & Liquor is a new book by comedian Gilbert Gottfried and is available for purchase tomorrow, April 26th, 2011.It's being published by St. Martin's Press.

I've got three book trailers for you to check out and a review and giveaway will be coming up in the near future.







Check out book info on Gilbert Goffried's website and a competition for an exclusive Gilbert Gottfried ringtone and signed insert.

Follow My Book Blog Friday

Follow My Book Blog Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.


Welcome to SMS Book Reviews! 

I review adult nonfiction and children's books from picture books to YA, fiction and nonfiction.

My top choices to read and review are:

• Adult Nonfiction (parenting, mental health, life/cultural studies, memoirs, self help, science/math, cooking, lifestyle.)
• Children's Nonfiction (All but perhaps sports and war.)
• Picture books (0-3 and 3-6 age group)

If you follow me on GFC, facebook and/or twitter, let me know below and I'll follow you back.

Today's Question: What is on your playlist???

I don't really have a playlist but lately I've been listening to:

What the Hell by Avril Lavigne
Alone Again by Alyssa Reid
Price Tag by Jessie J

If you really like what you see, please consider subscribing via rss or email (see sidebar) to keep up on the latest posts.

iVillage PBS Kids Summer Reading Challenge

I signed up for the iVillage and PBS Kids Summer Reading Community Challenge starting June 6th. I wanted to share the information about it with you because I figured others would be interested.

It's a 6 week program that includes the following:

• A daily email with fun activities to build reading skills
• Tricks and advice from your Challenge coach
• Great book suggestions for kids of all ages
• Tips from other parents taking the challenge
• A chance to win daily prizes

Sign Up Now! Weekly Tips and Tools to Prepare start April 28!

Book Blogger Hop: April 15-18

Welcome visitors from the Book Blogger Hop. My name is Callista and here at SMS Book Reviews I blog about children's books (picture books to YA, fiction and nonfiction) and adult nonfiction. I'm one of the few book blogs that focuses on adult nonfiction.

If things look a little slow around here, it's because I just had my third baby almost 3 weeks ago. I'm working on getting more frequent posts up now that we are back home and more or less settled.

I hope you like what you see and will stick around. You can subscribe for free to get my posts via feed reader or by email (see sidebar) and/or follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Google Friend Connect (GFC - see sidebar)

This Week's Question:

"Pick a character from a book you are currently reading or have just finished and tell us about him/her."

Well I don't normally read that much fiction but I do have a YA fiction novel currently going. The main character is a girl who self injures and is given the opportunity to be one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. It's a strange book but still a bit intriguing. I'm almost half way through. It's called Rage by Jackie Kessler.

Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg

Stars: *****

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Originally 1990, Updated 2011)
Picture Book
48 pages

Summary: When it comes to the environment, young Walter is not an enlightened individual. He's a litterbug who believes sorting trash is a big waste of time. What's more, he thinks his friend's birthday present, a tree, is the most ridiculous gift he's ever seen. Walter believes the future is going to be wonderful, filled with robots and other amazing inventions. One night while lying in bed, Walter wishes he could visit the future. He falls asleep and his wish comes true. But the world Walter sees is not exactly what he'd imagined. When he returns to the present, he is changed and so are his dreams.  - from author's website

This is a great book for Earth Day or anytime you want to teach about environmentalism. Although it's an older book, I'd not seen it. It's by the author of The Polar Express and Jumanji (and many others,) so you know the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous.

The little boy's dreams show just how scary our world could end up the way we are going. He pops in and out of different dreams, showing many different scenarios. At the end he learns his lesson and pitches in and his dream that night is quite different.

I was a little surprised at first with the "ideal world" dream as it shows a return to simpler days with no clothes dryers or electric lawn mowers but I quickly realized that we would have to limit our energy usage in order to reverse the poor environment our children can look forward to (or not) in the future. It makes sense to me!

I read this to my 4 and 5 year old but it was over their head. I tried to explain as much as possible and I think the got a bit of it but it was too long and involved. I'm not sure the target age range but I'd say 8+

Links of Interest: Chris Van Allsburg,
Other Reviews: NONE YET

Buy Just a Dream at amazon.com and support SMS Book Reviews

24-Hour Readathon Recap

Well I didn't expect to do a full out readathon but I had hoped to do way better than I did.

I didn't even get a chance to keep track of pages read or time read because I had to keep stopping and starting reading like every few minutes.



It wasn't even the baby most of the time. It was my migraine and my older kids who I had to help get ready for a birthday party.

I didn't get to try any mini-challenges.

I already can't wait till October so I can actually participate more.

24-Hour Readathon Intro

As I stated previously, I have a 11 day old baby (plus my other two children) so I don't know how much reading I'll be doing and I'm not staying up all night but I wanted to get a chance to get more reading done and I love the readathon!

1)Where are you reading from today? Birth Day by Mark Sloan, MD (to start)
2)Three random facts about me…

 - I read mostly nonfiction because I love to learn.
 - I'm recovering from my C-section.
 - I'm on Day Three of a bad migraine (luckily it's toned down today) and I swear day 7 of headaches in general.

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? I have a pile of about 6-8 that I will pick from but it's not like I will read them all.
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? Nope. Not this time around anyway. I just want to get as much reading done as I can.
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time? 

- Have lots of snacks ready
- Do lots of stretching. Walk and read at the same time sometime
- Read any harder to read books early on, do NOT save them for the middle of the night.
 - If you are trying for 24 hours with NO naps, it's HARD but I've done it. The last 4 hours are the worst. I was mostly holding the book, reading a few words and nodding off then waking up and doing the same thing. Expect to re-read the same passage over and over.

Introducing Baby Liam...

Liam was born March 29 at 4:19 PM at 9lbs 1oz, 19 inches long. 

He came in a scheduled C-section. Everything went fine and we are taking it easy at home.

Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Difference Grow into Troublesome Gaps - and What We Can Do About It by Lise Eliot, Ph.D.

Stars: *****

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2009)
432 pages
Adult Nonfiction

Summary: From the best-selling author of What's Going On In There?, neuroscientist Lise Eliot shatters the myths about sex differences, arguing that few are truly innate and that the brains of boys and girls are shaped by how they spend their time. - from Thomas Allen & Sons. (Click link for longer description)

This was an AWESOME book. I am always interested in sociology and gender differences fits right in. I've read other books and articles on the subject but this one takes the cake. In fact this one shows why some of the other ones I read weren't scientifically accurate. Any book that makes scientific claims needs to back them up but when I was younger, I just assumed if someone wrote a nonfiction book, they knew what they were talking about. How I of course know better.

Lise explains many different studies to back up what she says and mentions when a study is smaller and therefore can not be taken as "gospel" but with further research, can be proven one way or the other. You can tell she's done her research and she knows what she's talking about.

The most popular argument of course is whether boys and girls really do like different types of toys or whether we condition them that way. Lise seems to settle it once and for all. Boys and Girls DO play differently and are attracted to different toys - in GENERAL. Of course there are exceptions (which explains the boy who LOVES his dolls and the girl who rolls in the mud. However that doesn't mean we shouldn't encourage our boys and girls to play with the toys they tend to shy away from. Children learn different skills from different types of toys. So girls tend to be more communicative because they play with dolls and stuffed animals and play house which requires communication. Boys tend to have better large motor skills because they run around and chase, play cars and blocks. You can read more about this in the article linked below in Links of Interest.

I especially liked that the book talks about gender differences in each stage of life from prenatal to adult although there is more on children as the older you get, the harder it is to see if someone was born with that difference or just learned it throughout their life.  The prenatal section was very interesting to me since I'm pregnant.

There were only two small things that I should mention about the book.

1. It's somewhat technical. It's not a book you can read with lots of distractions but it's interesting enough to read through the technical parts. There would be no way the book could be written less technical though without being less believable as being a book written by a knowledgeable writer.

2. You can't just read some and then go tell everyone what you learned without continuing to read. Many times Lise would explain something a study showed and then just when you think that explains everything, the next section explains what that studies results can't be taken as fact. For example in the prenatal section, baby rats are studied to show how a release of androgen (hormone) affects baby boys. In the next section titled "Boys are Not Rats" it is explained why this doesn't necessarily mean the same thing with human babies.

Overall this was a great book and one I intend to share with some people I know who would appreciate it although I'll be holding on to it myself after that.

Links of Interest: Globe & Mail Article: Why Boys Need Barbies and Girls Need Footballs, Lise Eliot (especially check out the FAQ),

Other Reviews: Pussreboots, 5 Minutes for Mom,

Buy Pink Brain, Blue Brain at amazon.com and support SMS Book Reviews

Author Guest Post: Leadership at Work: Communicate and Connect the Dots

There are ways of expressing ourselves to get points across and there are ways to create lots of noise and buzz. Right now, in our stimulus addicted society buzz seems to win.
Think Charlie Sheen!

Hey women, listen up! We know how to talk together and resolve issues. We are not prone to punch each other out to see who is stronger which so often is equated to better.
We are not the ones to rush to judge, attack and condemn.

We can’t let the patterns of avoidance and denial lead the way. We are the ones to lead the way. Yes we are really good question askers/good listeners and that is at the heart of healthy communication. There is no need to posture and polarize.

Now, most politicians, male and female, think the only way they can win is to make the other/s wrong, to paint with a broad brush so that you will agree that their ideas are the right ones. This is not dialogue, this is debate and it has its place; for a brief time. Yes, in debate there are winners and losers; that is part of how life as we know it works.

Yet, for more meaningful discussions we need to poke and probe the essence of what is going on; to understand the history and systems at play. Women, we know how to do this! We just need to stay steady and not give our power away to those who want quick, simple and yet, not long term fulfilling solutions. At the end of “Don’t Bring It to Work” is a story of a business team that decided to tackle what was really in the way of their success. Each had a story that led them upstream to where the real issues lay.

Here is a classic story that is so much a woman’s story, about going upstream to find the source. Think about beginning and endings. They start long before a specific moment and end long after the curtain closes on a meeting in the present.

They stood on the banks of the river and watched the dying fish flow by. Everyone got busy and spent their time scooping and sorting the fish.

Week’s later two young women said they would no longer participate. This was a fruitless exercise leaving everyone tired and depressed with no long term action plan. Scoop and sort had run its course.

Upstream was to a factory that was humming along with lots of activity. They went to the front desk and were told it was a place that manufactured furniture. They were assured that putting tables and chairs together could in no way harm the fish.

They continued walking upstream. Miles away, past the factory the fish were healthy and thriving. They went back to the factory (anyone remember Erin Brockovich) And  yes, the furniture factory was using chemicals to glue their products and the residuals were being drained into the river.

By focusing upstream, by asking the questions, by taking action we can make positive change happen. No longer is it possible to leave the hard work to others. We have the ability to move beyond the obvious and get the heart of the matter; it’s always upstream!

Written by: Sylvia Lafair, Ph.D., author of the award winning book, “Don’t Bring It to Work”, “Working Together” and “Pattern Aware Success Guide”e- book, is President of CEO, Creative Energy Options, Inc., a  global consulting company focused on optimizing workplace relationships through extratordinary leadership. Dr. Lafair’s unique model has revolutionized the way teams cooperate, relate and innovate.
She can be reached at sylvia@ceoptions.com or 570-636-3858; www.sylvialafair.com