The Book
Genre: non-fiction / educational
About Unlocking The Social Potential In Autism:
Parents are hit with an avalanche of emotions when they receive the news that their child has autism. It is understandable that many parents default to feelings of denial, guilt, and hopelessness; however, what is not easily recognized is the powerful opportunity parents have to unlock their child s social potential.Source: Info in the About Unlocking The Social Potential In Autism was from the press kit from the publicity team.
Karina Poirier, Psy.D., BCBA-D, offers her expertise in this book that parents will find incredibly useful. Dr. Poirier has provided in simple, easy to comprehend language, an overview of child development, a descriptive explanation of how autism affects each developmental area, and guidelines for advancing your child s functioning in all developmental domains.
The book contains a multitude of hands-on, full-color sample lessons for teaching social and emotional skills, language, problem-solving and decision making, and play skills to children with autism.
Buy Link(s):
Book Trailer:
Excerpt:
(From the Foreword written by a parent):
In our journey towards recovery, we came across many therapists, psychologists, doctors, and other professionals. We realize now that they were not all created equal.
There were some professionals—luckily only a few—whose involvement in our children’s lives was clearly just another mediocre job to them. However, we owe an immense amount of gratitude to many others for the loving and kind ways in which they contributed to our children’s progress. Dr. Poirier, whom the children affectionately call ’Dr. Karina,’ singularly stands out in a long line of people we have met along the way. She is the person to whom we are most grateful.
We met Dr. Poirier almost three years ago when my husband and I took our daughter Claire to her to help with Claire’s extreme social difficulties. Claire hardly had any friends at school; she was extremely shy around her peers. By that time, we had tried everything—even going so far as to drive almost 100 miles at a time for treatment. We enrolled Claire in multiple social classes and social groups, but all to no effect. We had to wait about a month for a spot to open up in Dr. Poirier’s schedule, but when she finally had an available time to schedule Claire for treatment, we took it immediately. Claire made incredible progress under Dr. Poirier’s treatment plan. Claire has since graduated from Dr. Poirier’s sessions and is currently thriving in the 6th grade. She has several close friends and she frequently gets invited to play dates; and she shares stories with my husband and me about how much fun she is having at school.
Adam started seeing Dr. Poirier as well. Adam’s issues are broader and more complex than Claire’s. With Dr. Poirier’s guidance and expertise, Adam too is growing, maturing, and bridging the gap that has for long distinguished him from typical kids his age.
Adam continues to work with Dr. Poirier, and he has made remarkable progress in the two years he has been seeing her. He is learning about socially acceptable behavior, perspective taking, how to maintain conversations, how to regulate his emotions, how to be a good friend, and how to make and keep friends. Adam is currently an A student in the 7th grade, and he has several good friends at school. It is almost as if a fog has been lifted from Adam.
What makes Dr. Poirier different is that she sees each child as a whole person. In the past, I often felt that the professionals who interacted with Adam saw him only in the scope of one developmental area. The speech therapist, for instance, saw Adam only in the context of his language development, while the occupational therapist saw Adam only in the context of his motor and sensory development without concerning herself too much about his lack of social skills or lack of language, and so forth. Dr. Poirier works with the child to advance all developmental areas, such as the child’s language, emotional growth, cognitive skills, and social skills as a whole. She has a true passion for helping children and their families struggling with autism and other disabilities.
I am honored that Dr. Poirier asked me to write the foreword to her book. While I feel completely unworthy, and though my words could never do justice to emphasize the value of her work, the fact that Dr. Poirier asked me, the parent of one of her patients, to write this foreword shows the nature of her character. Certainly there are countless professionals in the field who would have loved to write the foreword for this book, but it is the mother’s view, the family’s perspective, that means the most to Dr. Poirier.
I am so excited that Dr. Poirier’s book will be available to children and families who, due to distance, finance, or other circumstances, may never have the opportunity to work with her one- on-one. They will now be able to benefit from the same treatment and therapies she uses with the children who she works with every day in her clinical practice.
In our journey towards recovery, we came across many therapists, psychologists, doctors, and other professionals. We realize now that they were not all created equal.
There were some professionals—luckily only a few—whose involvement in our children’s lives was clearly just another mediocre job to them. However, we owe an immense amount of gratitude to many others for the loving and kind ways in which they contributed to our children’s progress. Dr. Poirier, whom the children affectionately call ’Dr. Karina,’ singularly stands out in a long line of people we have met along the way. She is the person to whom we are most grateful.
We met Dr. Poirier almost three years ago when my husband and I took our daughter Claire to her to help with Claire’s extreme social difficulties. Claire hardly had any friends at school; she was extremely shy around her peers. By that time, we had tried everything—even going so far as to drive almost 100 miles at a time for treatment. We enrolled Claire in multiple social classes and social groups, but all to no effect. We had to wait about a month for a spot to open up in Dr. Poirier’s schedule, but when she finally had an available time to schedule Claire for treatment, we took it immediately. Claire made incredible progress under Dr. Poirier’s treatment plan. Claire has since graduated from Dr. Poirier’s sessions and is currently thriving in the 6th grade. She has several close friends and she frequently gets invited to play dates; and she shares stories with my husband and me about how much fun she is having at school.
Adam started seeing Dr. Poirier as well. Adam’s issues are broader and more complex than Claire’s. With Dr. Poirier’s guidance and expertise, Adam too is growing, maturing, and bridging the gap that has for long distinguished him from typical kids his age.
Adam continues to work with Dr. Poirier, and he has made remarkable progress in the two years he has been seeing her. He is learning about socially acceptable behavior, perspective taking, how to maintain conversations, how to regulate his emotions, how to be a good friend, and how to make and keep friends. Adam is currently an A student in the 7th grade, and he has several good friends at school. It is almost as if a fog has been lifted from Adam.
What makes Dr. Poirier different is that she sees each child as a whole person. In the past, I often felt that the professionals who interacted with Adam saw him only in the scope of one developmental area. The speech therapist, for instance, saw Adam only in the context of his language development, while the occupational therapist saw Adam only in the context of his motor and sensory development without concerning herself too much about his lack of social skills or lack of language, and so forth. Dr. Poirier works with the child to advance all developmental areas, such as the child’s language, emotional growth, cognitive skills, and social skills as a whole. She has a true passion for helping children and their families struggling with autism and other disabilities.
I am honored that Dr. Poirier asked me to write the foreword to her book. While I feel completely unworthy, and though my words could never do justice to emphasize the value of her work, the fact that Dr. Poirier asked me, the parent of one of her patients, to write this foreword shows the nature of her character. Certainly there are countless professionals in the field who would have loved to write the foreword for this book, but it is the mother’s view, the family’s perspective, that means the most to Dr. Poirier.
I am so excited that Dr. Poirier’s book will be available to children and families who, due to distance, finance, or other circumstances, may never have the opportunity to work with her one- on-one. They will now be able to benefit from the same treatment and therapies she uses with the children who she works with every day in her clinical practice.
Meet The Author
Dr. Karina Poirier is the Director of the Center for Social Cognition, a board certified behavior analyst at the doctoral level (BCBA-D), and a certified cognitive educational therapist. Her clinical practice is devoted to providing outstanding individual and group therapy that improves social and cognitive outcomes for individuals with autism, ADHD, Traumatic Brain Injury, and related disorders.
Giveaway
The author is giving away a $50 Amazon gift card! The giveaway will run the length of the tour. Enter through Rafflecopter!
This book would be really useful for me since I plan to start my volunteer work at the local autism center. I joined the giveaway, thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the book I have very good friends who are going through a hard time with this and I am going to let them know about this book Thank you so much for the giveaway
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested in this book, my 17yr old is on the spectrum and I'm always interested in the subject and in any ways I can help improve his life =)
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of this before but it sounds very interesting! Thanks for the chance x
ReplyDeleteThis sounds helpful
ReplyDeleteI entered the contest and I'd love to win the Amazon gift card.
ReplyDeletefab giveaway i have entered
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I find the topic of autism very fascinating, thanks for the post and giveaway! :)
ReplyDelete