Review of What is Autism?

[Cristina Corui Mihailescu]

[Following is a volunteer review of "What is Autism?" by Damien Rist.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Having taught several autistic kids in my career, I would really like to know more about this condition. I was naturally drawn towards this book written by Damien Rist, who openly states he is autistic. He has learnt as much as he can about his condition and has tried to share with his readers all the information gathered in the form of poems to make it easier to understand.

"What is Autism?" starts with an introduction, where autism is defined as a neurological condition with a large spectrum. The people suffering from autism have more challenges than the others and, were we to understand them better, we could help them have similar chances to the rest.

Due to the fact that their brain functions a bit differently, autistic children cannot learn some basic social skills up to the age of five. A common misconception is that only boys can be autistic since girls are better at masking it. Another one is that this condition is specific only to childhood, while, in fact, many people get diagnosed only in adulthood. The poet goes on to speak about what might annoy the people around them: autistic people have tics and self-stimulatory behaviour used when anxious or bored to avoid a meltdown. Autistic people have sensory toys to fidget with. The people around them should not stare or forbid them to use those bracelets, necklaces or cubes. Another thing worth remembering is that they love routines and schedules because spontaneity is confusing and scary.

There are many other things to learn from the 33 pages of the book, divided into 11 poems. My favourite is the last one, which refers to echolalia and palilalia, meaning repeating someone else and repeating yourself. There are no typical figures of speech, sometimes the rhyme is forced, yet the poems have an air of freshness.

What I disliked, though, has little to do with the poems. The only problem is the fact that the book was not well-edited. There are many errors of different kinds, acceptable from the author but not from the editor. For this reason, I have to give the book 4 out of 5 stars, hoping that a second edition will be better edited. I recommend these poems to all readers who want to know more about autism, regardless of their age, gender, or religious beliefs.

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What is Autism?
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[Anastasia Baglay]

Thank you for your honest review! Did you make some double-check about this topic? Would be really interesting to dive deeper.