This is a great introduction to Autism, using named examples of both children with autism and their deficits, and parents of these children and their concerns. The short and snappy text makes this book interesting to read without getting bored halfway through - it's great for students studying the disorder or just for people who are interested in the autistic spectrum and it's effects in society. Written by a well established researcher of autism, this book is well worth a read.

I normally have a great deal of time for Uta Frith: she has studied autism for a long time, and with a sympathetic and receptive attitude; she has not tried to come up with a cure or tried to impose herself on the data. However, in line with many in the more recent editions of the Very Short Introductions, this is a let down. Early VSI’s were re-prints of existing books previously issued under the Past Masters / Brief Insights series. However, the First World War volume simply re-iterates the tiresome Blackadder version without comparing this with the historical facts and finding the Blackadder view wanting; the Myth volume doesn’t explain how myths work in meaning-making, and I’m beginning to have my doubts about the later books as a whole. What’s wrong here. The thing that’s most important to autistics - how do we get normal people to stop being such idiots and treat us better ? - gets an all too brief quick going over on page 120 ! How to spot an autistic going into meltdown, the deleterious effect of the meltdown on the autistic’s health, how to stop a meltdown, and - most important of all - why normal people need to stop doing certain things, should be at least one chapter and preferably three. Instead, what we get is a rambling, dis-co-ordinated monologue of ‘Diane’ who is concerned about her child, with a series of rhetorical questions posed by Frith that Frith then answers. But, as shown above, *‘Diane’s’ / Frith’s issues aren’t ours* ! Throughout the book, we are introduced to five ‘big ideas’. I can’t tell you what those five big ideas are, because I can’t find them, because despite them being the core backbone of the book, they are neither listed, nor referenced in the index, nor given a separate chapter each ! Oh, for Anglo-Saxon expletive’s sake ! How anti-autism can you get ? These five big ideas pop in and out of the text like a cat in the undergrowth. I’ve chanced upon the second one, p73, that autistics are not hard-wired to be social. Again, throughout the text we meet example people, like Mickey on p15, but that is not the first occurrence of Mickey, again, he is not referenced in the index, nor are page numbers given to where he was introduced: readers are expected to remember these random pop-ups of people. Here are other problems :- p24, p115, we are introduced to Applied Behaviour Analysis, and the context implies it is positive and works. Those who have seen Chris Packham’s autobiographical documentary will have seen him in a ABA ‘treatment’ centre, where he described the process as “torture”, and yes, it is. It would have been very helpful for a research scientist to have given a proper diagnostic evaluation of this desperate attempt by parents to ‘fix’ their child and make them normal, p62-3, stuff knows what these two diagrams are supposed to be conveying, p82, we don’t care about chit-chat, very true, but this is then ruined by saying we are geared to information interchange. No we’re not. We don’t care about chit-chat because :- a) it’s boring, we can be apathetic about communicating at all, and might just want to sit and read, b) we can’t work out what level of sharing, we under-share or over-share, c) we are bewildered by what we’re supposed to say and do because ... d) ...normal people are too varied, unpredictable and we can’t work out the ever-changing social rules, we need fewer personality types and fewer rules, e) words have too many variables, homophones, synonyms, too much ‘personal baggage’ that we can’t possibly just know, it’s not one clear word per one clear item / concept / whatever, p83, she says there are over “1,560 species [of stick insect] in the UK”, referring to a fictional autistic enthusiast. No there aren’t, there are no natives and only three ‘import’ species only in the bottom left-hand corner of the country. Basic fact-checking failure in a book on autism ... unless she means enthusiasts have that many between them, but that is not made clear. Well done normal people, do you now get why we don’t like chit-chat ? You lot can’t express yourselves clearly enough. p89, picture 16, the boy looking at the toy car isn’t looking at a toy car, it’s obviously a piece of agricultural equipment ! Do you not get how much this failure to check facts and make the information accurate and consistent drives autistics round the bend ... ? (Actually, I think it’s a Britain’s 1/32 muck spreader, but that’s only because I used to have one) p115, when talking about how much we cost to look after, the opportunity is missed to speculate on how much we could raise if work-places allowed us to function at our best and utilised our positive characteristics to the best advantage for all. Again, well done normal people for dismissing us and shunting us into a corner because we’re ‘not normal’. If you wish to make a connection between this and oppressive regimes that have tried ‘ethnic cleansing’ then that’s your connection ... I’m just offering it as an idea ... Good things :- p47, in past ages our abilities would have been praised / accepted and our difficulties put up with as ‘character’ or foibles, but now we are ‘disabled’ because we can’t do social niceties like eye-contact and chit-chat, p49, it’s become trendy to be ‘a little bit on the spectrum’. It’s good to have this pointed out: a) these people are not necessarily autistic, and b) how come it’s okay to be a little bit autistic but not lots ?, p82, there are other ways of communicating other than by talking ! p115, it apparently costs £2.9m per individual high-functioning and £4.7m per individual low-functioning over that individual’s lifetime, and the appalling lack of support is highlighted. Finally, throughout the book it is emphasised that autism is *developmental* and not acquired. To me, those blaming MMR, ‘big pharma’, or ‘leaky gut’ are looking for excuses to pass the blame because they can’t cope with the realisation that their child came out that way, isn’t what they wanted, and the condition is because of their genes.