Helpful Links and other resources...

         

                                                     Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disabilities

 

 

                                 National Eating Disorders Association

 

 

                                                    Site for parents and teens

 

 

 

                                   

Lance Dodes, M.D., a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he is a member of the Division on Addictions. He is also the Director of the Boston Center for Problem Gambling. He has served as the director of the alcoholism and substance abuse treatment unit of Harvard's McLean Hospital, and as the director of the alcoholism unit at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (now part of Massachusetts General Hospital). He is also on the faculty of the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, where he teaches courses in compulsive and addictive behavior. Dodes's work has been published in many professional journals.

Greenspan and Wieder (The Child with Special Needs) start out by redefining autism in realistic yet positive terms which open the door for successful intervention: instead of focusing solely on the autistic spectrum, a more flexible axis measuring progress, on which placement is not fixed, can give parents and children a "a healthy developmental trajectory," taking into account such goals as "showing intimacy and warmth ... communicating with gestures ... and talking meaningfully." The authors give readers a pragmatic approach to thinking about people on the autistic spectrum, including specific ideas for enhancing connectivity and communication in people of any age, most of whom "rarely advance intellectually above the ten-to-twelve-year-old level ... when they could progress far beyond the level of concrete thinking," if only there were a curriculum that would "challenge them to do so." Most of the text is used to help develop an engaging program for someone with autism, including resources and examples, in order to address "relationships, specific behaviors, the creative use of ideas, and the various processing areas." This is essential reading for caregivers, parents and friends of people on the spectrum, as well as compelling reading for anyone who wants to learn more about autism.