MAKING SENSE OF AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS

Create the Brightest Future for Your Child with the Best Treatment Options
by James Coplan M.D.

To Be Published as a Bantam Books Hardcover on March 23, 2010

“Dr. Coplan has given parents a concise roadmap for navigating their journey through the maze of services, therapies and programs available for their children. I wish I’d had this sooner!”
—Stacy Groder, board member of the Autism Society of America

“An engaging guide for both professionals and parents that is written authoritatively from a most important perspective on children with autistic spectrum disorders.”
—Janet A. Deatrick, PhD, FAAN, Associate Professor and Associate Director, Center for Health Disparities Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

As a neurodevelopmental pediatrician with decades of experience as a clinician and a researcher, Dr. James Coplan is a dedicated leader in the understanding of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the nation’s fastest-growing developmental disability. ASD affects one in every 166 children in the United States, with a rate of incidence that increases between 10 and 17 percent annually. But for the 1.5 million Americans affected by ASD, treatment is complicated by the varied manifestations of the disorder—from high-functioning Asperger Syndrome to classic autism—and the demand for a greater understanding of ASD is huge and constantly growing. Now, in his new book, MAKING SENSE OF AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS: Create the Brightest Future for Your Child with the Best Treatment Options, Dr. Coplan, one of the few physicians in the country to be board-certified in both Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities, provides an indispensable guide that includes precise descriptions of all the leading intervention programs and which children they benefit most, as well as expert advice on how state-of-the art medications can help in certain situations. MAKING SENSE OF AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS will be published as a Bantam Hardcover on March 23, 2010.

ASD truly refers to a range of disorders that, though they share common characteristics, require specialized attention for their diagnosis and treatment, and while he does not consider ASD biologically curable, Dr. Coplan believes that most children with ASD improve over time if they are given the right type of therapy. In his groundbreaking new book, Coplan guides parents through what is usually a bewildering array of therapy options and intervention programs to find the optimal treatment method for their child. Rather than promoting any one option, Dr. Coplan takes a measured look at all of the available treatment options for ASD, and then lets parents choose what’s best for their child, based on the thorough and precise information that he provides.

At once hopeful and frank (some children will mature out of the autistic spectrum entirely, while others need long-term care), and filled with illuminating observations of the children themselves, MAKING SENSE OF AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS: Create the Brightest Future for Your Child with the Best Treatment Options will enable every reader to become an expert advocate for their child.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JAMES COPLAN, M.D., was trained at New York Medical College and the Johns Hopkins University; he directed resident training in child development at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, NY, for twenty years, followed by an appointment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Now in private practice in Rosemont, PA, he specializes in the assessment of children with ASD.