I got this assignment, and I had to choose a book to write about. After thinking, and looking around for a book I could write about, I found this book. An EA in the resource room brought a few books in about Autism/Asperger’s Syndrome, and in my spare time at school I decided to read this one. I read it mainly because I have Asperger’s syndrome, and wanted some information about how people adapt to the workplace, and function properly.
The book’s full title is “Developing Talents – Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism“. After reading it, I learned a few useful tips, but most of it didn’t really seem practical. For instance, it suggested that if you are bothered by fluorescent lights, remove them from your work area, or move your work area. At my age, I don’t really know how good of an idea that actually is, but I think that it simply wouldn’t work in most work situations.
Employers want an employee who is productive and easy to accommodate. If the employee requires lights to be dismanteled, or a special room to work in, that isn’t going to work very well.
The book does provide some useful tips on finding jobs, and dealing with social situations. The tips that are not practical will work for a few people, but not most. There need to be more suggestions that will work for a wide range of people, especially for dealing with big problems.
It explains how promotions to management positions can be a problem, but it doesn’t really explain how to deal with that problem. In other words, it leaves a lot of ‘holes’ in the text, where it sometimes explains a problem and how to deal with it, or it may only explain the problem and give very vague information on how to deal with it.
On the positive side, it does have some very nice explanations about how people with Autism think. These explanations are very good if you want to understand yourself better.
I personally think it isn’t a very good book. But that is just my opinion. I didn’t have much time to complete this assignment, so I may have left some things out that I didn’t have time to thoroughly think about.
Well, that pretty much wraps up my book review. I think I covered enough to get a very basic idea of the book’s content.