Welcome to the Upside Autism blog!

Upside Autism
Publishing and promoting a book has proven to be both an exhilarating and sobering experience. I’ve gotten feedback, mostly positive, from people in the autism community, reporters, celebrities and book lovers from around the world. I issued several press releases that were distributed through a wire service to thousands of media outlets and I sent out hundreds of e-mails and letters promoting the book. Interesting responses. BeatleBangs1964, a prolific reviewer of books sold on Amazon, called “Eddie and Me on the Scrap Heap” a masterpiece. But others who hadn’t read my book reacted harshly to a press release I put out because I noted that I spent six years and 63,000 words building a bridge of music, magic, humor and junk to connect with my own son, who has autism.
Without reading the book or knowing the extent of my son’s disabilities, they faulted me for trying to “build a bridge” to reach him. The message in my book is that it’s okay to be different. Eddie in my book doesn’t need to be fixed. He finally accepts himself as he is and so do others. Still, all of us must function in a mainstream world and need basic life skills like reading and counting and being able to converse to function. More power to those on the autism spectrum who are high-functioning. They have those skills. But my son and many others need intervention early on with therapy, tutoring and other support to master basic skills so they can achieve some semblance of independence. Perhaps I should have said intervention instead of “bridge."
What are your thoughts? I welcome comments from visitors to my web site. I’d like to use this blog as a forum for candid discussion of autism and related issues and to share ideas on treatment and other resources.