Finding Ben

February 15, 2003
In this heartfelt memoir, practicing psychologist LaSalle recounts her son's troubled youth up to his being diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), at age 25. Initially considered gifted, Ben (b. 1969) spoke in complete sentences before he could walk and consistently read at accelerated levels. However, his social problems resulted in his having no friends, grooming issues, school problems, anger toward co-workers, and a life in and out of group homes. LaSalle focuses on the difficulty in raising Ben and her struggle to determine his disability, ending her account shortly after his diagnosis. It is met with much relief; both mother and son rejoice that they are not to "blame" for Ben's disruptive behavior. While this emphasis provides little value to parents and adults struggling with how to help their children cope, the book is important as a study of the generation of ASD sufferers not diagnosed because they could talk. LaSalle does a good job of showing the thin line between gifted and disabled that exists with Asperger's children. Recommended for academic and public libraries with disability and Asperger's collections. [To find out more about Ben, read his journal entries at www.aspergerjourney. com.-Ed.]-Corey Seeman, Univ. of Toledo Libs., OH

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2003
Extremely rare is the mother who doesn't worry about whether she is a good parent, and it is easy to become obsessed trying to do everything right for one's child. With all her worries when she gave birth to Benjamin, kindergarten teacher LaSalle was typical. She wanted to be a perfect mother to a perfect--read " normal--"child. But Ben was anything but normal. While LaSalle misguidedly persisted in trying to be the perfect mother, the real, imperfect Ben got lost in a blind alley of misdiagnosis, mistaken counsel, and, finally, imprisonment. It was 25 years before he was correctly diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. Naming the disorder, however, didn't solve LaSalle's biggest problem. She still wanted Ben to be perfect (i.e., normal), and it was nearly another decade before she learned that he was perfect just as he was. Although their hard-learned wisdom was a side effect of Ben's catastrophic developmental disorder, mother and son both have much to share with all parents in this well-written account.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)