UBC Press Eating an Artichoke book Paperback 208 pages

During a routine parent-teacher conference in November 1991, Echo Fling was told by her son's teacher that his behaviour in class was `not normal'. After two years at the pre-school, five-year-old Jimmy had failed to make any friends, had recently started to act aggressively towards his classmates, and was beginning to react violently to any changes in his routine. Echo was not taken completely by surprise: she had suspected for some time that her son was different from other children. Over the next five years, she and her husband accompanied Jimmy to doctors, medical specialists, learning consultants and psychologists. Finally, at the age of ten, Jimmy was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome.This is the book that Echo Fling needed when she first set out to have Jimmy diagnosed, and it will enable parents and teachers to understand and help other children with Asperger Syndrome.

Echo R. Fling is director of Communications in the Office of Marketing and College Relations at Thomas Edison State College. Prior to joining the College, she was President and a founding board member of ASC-US (Asperger Syndrome Coalition of the United States, Inc.). She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children. Echo is a twenty-year veteran journalist, having worked in both the print and broadcast genres, and has taken extensive leave from her writing career to advocate for AS awareness. Her son Jimmy was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome in 1996.