Description
Book SynopsisThe compelling story of Walker Stacey - a child who triumphed over his autistic tendencies with the dedicated help of his family When in 1996, Patricia Stacey gave birth to her second child, a baby boy, she quickly noticed an emptiness in his gaze a vacant quality that emphasized her sense that he was ill at ease in his own body. By the time Walker was five months old, his gaze was obsessively directed towards windows - light had become his true north.
Despite the reassurance of many health professionals that Walker was fine, during the weeks and months that followed the family continued to question the experts, who finally arrived at a diagnosis of sensory integration problems; a term inextricably linked with autism.
Refusing to accept that this diagnosis would lead to the finality of an autistic disorder, the family dedicated four years to incessantly drawing Walker away from the sirens that seemed to call him inwards, using the latest play-based techniques.
Trade Review
“… describes how a mother embraced the latest brain research and alternative therapies to help her son overcome autism…” (Young Minds, January 2004)
“This is a remarkable and moving book… Stacey writes with an honesty and modesty that is wholly beguiling…” (Zero2Nineteen, March 2004)
“…beautifully told story…” (Human Givens Journal, July 04)
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments.
Part 1.
Sirens.
You’ll Have to Wait.
Grasping.
Part 2.
What’s in a Face.
The World Is Too Much.
Reciprocity.
The Brain Doesn’t Wait.
The Game.
The Body Is a Map.
Part 3.
The Questions That Haunted Us.
New Clues.
A Walk Around the Driveway.
The Epidemic.
Part 4.
Through a Door in the Wall.
A Challenge, a Game, a Vocation, a Sentence.
Begin with Desire.
Tyranny of Attention.
Partly Heard Song.
Words.
The Specter of Loss.
Ways to Make a Salad.
The Ladder.
To Paradise Pond.
Exotic Poisons, Unusual Connections.
Through Another Door in the Wall.
Part 5.
Imagining the World.
A Close Call.
Companions.
A Searchlight.
The Senses Revisited.
Part 6.
I Have a Prob’em.
Epiphany.
What Wrecks This World.
A Car Turning Off the Road.
Eyes of a Stranger.
The Fate of Babies and Pirates.
Epilogue.
About the Author.
