S. A. Rubin, Finding Marisa: A Mother’s Story. A Guide to Raising a Child with Autism

Why a mother’s saga about raising her daughter with autism in a professional journal? Because this is not the average biography of a significantly autistic child who ends up doing well: the author, Marisa’s mother, has a graduate degree in special education, her father is a neurologist, therefore both have an unusually high degree of professionally relevant sophistication. Crucially, the book is based on mother’s 23 almost day-to-day journals, spanning close to 15 years. In my view, they make the book a respectable N of 1 prospective study, complete with a bevy of photographs of Marisa and significant persons in her life as it unfolds. The journals describe the family’s and schools’ adventures’ with Marisa, and those of others who participated in her education. The book is a well written, easy read, and some of the pickles Marisa gets into and how they were dealt with will be eye openers for many of the different professionals who care for children with autism. The author wrote this unvarnished book for parents honestly and specifically: she names and describes forthrightly many individual incidents, mistakes, and successes alike. Therefore I hope the professionals who take the time to read the book will recommend it widely to the parents of the children they care for because I believe it will be useful to parent and professional alike. …