My feedback after reading Dolphin's Dance (Writer: Jutta Goetze)

After reading the book, we may understand autism clearly. The book described a school child named Ali who has a younger brother Max. Max was a little boy with autism.

Ali was born in a normal family, but she could not live like in a normal family. Ali needed to help her mother to take care of Max, and Ali knew how to take care of him. Most of school children called Max a moron, retard, pest, rubbish....etc, but Ali didn't give up helping him.

Ali knew that Max didn't like to hear the D word, "Don't." When Max heard the D word, he would make a sound like a fire siren, louder and louder and never stop. And Max got furious easily. When that happened, Ali or her mom needed to give Max a big hug.

Max couldn't understand what others said, Ali found pictures and labels would be helpful. She drew and put a lot of pictures and labels everywhere at home. Max just focused on familiar things; when Mom had her hair cut, to Max, she became a stranger.

When Max was six and attended the same school as Ali, it was a big trouble for Ali. Ali pretended to have a tummy rumble and tried to keep away from school all the time. After her dad and mom's encouragement, and her one best friend's help, Ali did well at school again.

Though Max was the first child with this disease at school, teachers knew Max needed integration aides. Sometimes, Max still stuck into his tantrum and exasperation. Smart Ali wrote a list to school children and teachers as following:

              Things to know about Max

     ˙ Don't say the word "Don't" or you'll get a nasty surprise.

     ˙  Don't have too many distractions, like crepe paper jellyfish legs hanging from the ceiling, like we did when I was in Preps. Or glitter things. Max will look at them for hours. 

     ˙If you have computers in the room, you'd better switch them off, or you'll never get Max's attention. He really loves computers with sound effect.

     ˙Always have everything labeled, so Max knows where everything is. Photo labels are best.

     ˙ If Max gets too loud, music sometimes calms him down.

     ˙ Always have jelly snakes with you, as a reward, for when he does something right. He likes the red ones best.

At the mid-semester, Dad went to school to talk about autism to teachers and all school children. He wanted them to understand why Max couldn't stay at school like others.

During the summer vacation, Ali hanged around at home everyday. Dad worked and Mom took care Max and a youngest sister day by day. Ali really wanted to go on a vacation as normal family. At the end of summer vacation, a happy day came, and Mom decided to have the family to a beach and hoped the dolphins came. Fortunately, When Dad and Max were swimming in the sea, the dolphins came. Max was so excited, when they were coming closer and closer. Max's lips were forming a word "Dan......s......s" again and again. This was his first time to speak. No one knew what he said, but Ali knew Max was saying "dance." They had a happy holiday just like any typical family would finally. 

In this book, the story is viewed by Ali. This book also collects

 " What Max's Mom says", "What Max's Dad says", and "What Max's teacher says" three articles. The writer, Jutta, knows about how swimming with dolphins was supposed to help autistic kids. It is called "Dolphin Therapy", but this book is not about" Dolphin Therapy". It is an image of animals accepting us for who we are.

At the end of the book, the writer told us "Autism facts" as following:

     Autism is a life-long developmental disorder.

The incidence of autism is 1:1000, which is a little more common than blindness, and a little less common than a hearing impairment. The risk increases to 1:80 if a couple already has one child with autism--that is, they may have another autistic child, or a child with another developmental disorder. Autism is four times more common in boys than in girls. Girls tend to have a more begin, high-functioning autism. 

In 30 percent of cases, the causes of autism aren't known. What is known is that it is a genetically caused brain disorder. In other words, it isn't social. It can be caused by an injury in the womb, or at birth, by alcohol abuse during pregnancy, epilepsy, or by a radiation-damaged egg.

No single gene causes autism. It takes three defective genes to cause it, and the deficits are in: 

1  Communication,

2  Socialization, and 

3  Play/ behavior.

It can be severe and pervasive, or it can be mild, with no intellectual disabilities. Five percent of people with autism achieve university education. However, even in these cases, all three of the above deficits are present, in varying degrees. To accommodate these varying degrees of autism, the term "the Autistic Spectrum" is often used.