 Raising a child with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) can be a great struggle and an exhausting fight for the rights of someone who is both gifted and different. In NATURAL GENIUS: The Gifts of Asperger’s Syndrome (January 2007, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Paperback, $19.95; ISBN-10: 1-84310-784-8; 176 pages), Susan Rubinyi tells the story of raising her son Ben and how she came to view his AS, and the gifts that come with it, as a blessing. Rather than examining the negatives and difficulties, she emphasizes the extraordinary positives of her son’s life—his photographic memory, perfect pitch and French-English bilingual abilities.
Advocating a strength-based approach, Susan Rubinyi explains how her background in foreign language, science fiction and music, as well as her own feelings of alienation, have helped her to understand alternative and cross-cultural perspectives in life. Her journey with Ben is an enriching and strengthening one of personal transformation. An immensely hopeful and positive book, this should be read by anyone wishing to perceived and encourage the great rewards that lie within the challenges of Asperger’s Syndrome.
Ben has grown into a young adult. He knows the entire Beatles back catalogue by heart, has a photographic memory, possesses perfect pitch and is fluent is several languages. Rubinyi described her approach to his education by saying, “Though I had no inkling at the beginning that the bright little baby I was raising bilingually would also turn out to have Asperger’s Syndrome, I am now convinced that the choice of bilingualism has helped develop alternative pathways in his brain that would otherwise not have been utilized.” “I see multiple additional advantages of bilingualism for a person with Asperger’s Syndrome who has challenges with flexibility and understanding the existence of different perspectives. Merely the fact that there are two different ways to describe the same object, concept, in each language, enlarges the perception of the possible.”
Susan Rubinyi is fluent in four languages. She’s spent time living abroad in France with Ben. She has worked extensively in cross-cultural areas such as teaching languages at several universities, interpreting, translation and writing. She co-edited one of the first feminist science-fiction anthologies, administered a university Women’s Studies program, and has written several articles and a book on fantasy and science fiction. She has a BA Honors from the University of CA Berkeley and an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington.
Jessica Kingsley Publishers specializes in producing accessible professional and academic books in the social and behavioral sciences. In 2007, Jessica Kingsley Publishers was named both the Academic & Professional Publisher of the Year and the overall Independent Publisher of the Year at the Independent Publishing Awards in London. The prizes coincide with Jessica Kingsley Publishers' 20th year as an independent company. Jessica Kingsley books are available worldwide through distributors, local bookstores and online bookstores. The company has offices in London and Philadelphia. More information can be found at www.jkp.com. |
