I find Robbie Woliver’s Acknowledgements (six pages altogether) quite impressive because of the amount of information that was gathered and the number of experts that were consulted. For some conditions the author edited and used articles he had written for “the award-winning newspaper series ‘Our Children’s Brains’” (p. 11). In his Introduction, the author notes that one of six or even one of four children have a disorder that impacts significantly on their function and development. The disorders are usually not single but are often comorbid, compounding the child’s and the parents’ ordeal. This book is meant to serve as a resource and guide for parents in their role as advocates for their children, to help them learn as much as they can about their child’s condition.
The author carefully describes each condition, often providing a brief profile of a child with the disorder. Signs and symptoms, causes, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and sources of information are given for each condition. There is an impressive number of conditions described (I counted seventy-five altogether); for example, under “A”: ADHD, Auditory Processing Disorder, Aarskog Syndrome, Angelman Syndrome, Asperger Syndrome, and Autism Spectrum Disorder are listed and described. I was unfamiliar with many of them (e.g. Aarskog Disorder, a rare genetic disorder transmitted from mothers to their sons mainly, causing sterility and affecting the face, fingers, toes, cartilages and bones).
I find that the information given for medical conditions is so good that I could use the book as a reference. The list of conditions impresses me, and for example includes Cri du Chat Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Cornelia de Lange Syndrome, Coffin-Lowry Syndrome, Developmental Gerstmann Syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, Landau-Kleffner Syndrome, Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome., Prader-Willi Syndrome, Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome, Smith-Magenis Syndrome, Wilson’s Disease, Williams Syndrome, XXY Syndrome, and Zellweger Syndrome.
The only disagreement I have with the information given is that vaccines are listed as a potential cause of Asperger Syndrome; a more balanced and informed view is presented in the separate section on Autism Spectrum Disorders.
I applaud the author for coming up with such a wealth of accurate information; I recommend this book to parents of children with an “alphabet diagnosis”, and to any professional who treats these children.