Autism, Early Intervention, and Recovery - 'A Real Boy', by Christina Adams

A Real Boy:

When Christina Adams wrote and asked me to mention 'A Real Boy' on the SV site, and I offered to read and review it, I never suspected that this book would be a page turner!

'A Real Boy' is a personal and poetic account of her son's recovery from autism, a devastating disorder which affects one in 166 children in this country, an unimaginable number when you understand autism, and what it does to children and their families!

The story follows Jonah's progress from suspicion through diagnosis to normalcy. Christine and her husband devoted every particle of their beings, every scrap of their considerable intelligence, all of their resources, singlemindedly to Jonah's recovery. And miraculously succeeded.

To give you a taste of 'A Real Boy', I'd like to quote from one of my favorite passages: This takes place when Jonah is nearly recovered, and is part of a conversation he has with his Mom, just before going to sleep. This is always the time when children bare their souls to you, if you're lucky and if you let them!

'I'm not a pretend boy. I'm a real boy.'
'The closet is a real closet,' he says. 'You can go over and get toys out of it. A Busy Bee, books, an airplane.'
'Yes, you can,' I say.
'Mom, I'm not a pretend boy. I'm a real boy.'
'You are the most real boy in the whole world,' I say. 'Now go to sleep, baby. Sleep well.'
I stand in the hall and listen as he weaves a story for himself. He will not be silent, will not surrender to a capricious, invisible realm.
He's a real boy, in the world at last.

I felt sad for the autistic children whose parents don't have the resources and the time that Jonah's parents had. Most autistic children are limited to whatever the state will provide, whatever time their parents can spare from their work and their other children. I can see why Christine Adams felt compelled to put her eloquent voice to work, become an advocate for autistic children, and write this book. 'A Real Boy' will inspire and give hope to parents of autistic children, regardless of their circumstances.

On the surface, this isn't necessarily a book that would interest a lot of the people visiting a vegetarian website. Here's my ulterior motive for reviewing "A Real Boy.' Christina Adams touched briefly on possible causes of autism, and the book naturally focused on the means of recovery, which were to a fair extent directed by conventional medical wisdom. But she also subscribed wholeheartedly to the autism diet. Which led me to wonder about prevention.

If autism is linked to early childhood vaccinations, to drugs taken in pregnancy & child birth, allergic reactions, environmental toxins, poor diet - then it should be mostly preventable. And the means of prevention belong in the world of alternative medicine, herbalism, the environment, organic food, vegetarianism - everything that Savvy Vegetarian encompasses. It costs a fortune for both the parents & the government to fund autism treatment, with usually partial success. It would cost a fraction of that to make diet and lifestyle changes which could significantly lower the chances of autism. Are there any books about the topic of autism prevention, I wonder?

The high incidence of autism affects all of our lives. I highly recommend 'A Real Boy', which is mentally and emotionally fulfilling, a beautiful book about a real subject. Visit Christina Adams website to learn more about her and this surprising, wonderful book.

Judy Kingsbury, Savvy Vegetarian

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