Jean Shaw

This book is an account of autism - with a difference. The author, Jean Shaw, describes her son’s experience of being autistic through his eyes. Jodi cannot talk, but his mother brings alive for the reader just what it must be like to change from being an alert, talkative, happy, interested, lively, loving little bundle to a toddler from hell. Or rather, a child who became withdrawn, stopped speaking, had no eye contact and who couldn’t bear to be touched or held and who stopped playing with his toys.

The journey that the family has to make to discover what is wrong with their child and to find help is a via dolorosa. Together they have to overcome innumerable obstacles to explore every avenue of assistance Sadly this is an experience shared by many parents who have a child with special needs - some of which are not easily identified. Theses parents will identify, too, with the misery of trying to cope with a child in the outside world, where ‘everybody’ is an expert on parenting someone else’s child!

At the beginning I wondered if this way of narrating this child’s struggle would work, but it does. It helps you greatly to understand what it is like to be in the world with auditory processing difficulties, just as it lets you experience what happens when you go out shopping with an autistic child.

I’m Not Naughty - I’m Autistic takes the reader beneath the skin of an autistic child, and it is not a cosy or happy place to be. Just how uncomfortable and frustrating - and terrifying - is easier to identify with after reading this mother’s account.

As Jean Shaw says, in a ‘final word from mum, her hope is that the reader will have a slightly better understanding of autism. I leave you with her last comment, ‘As I said before there is nothing funny about autism.’

Do read this book

Review published 30 June 2004 © Jill Curtis 2004