Parents of children with special needs deserve their own time and space to rest, heal, and refuel their energy. Fighting Autism provides that time and space. Steve Walsh, a black belt, martial arts instructor, and parent of two children on the autism spectrum brings Zen philosophy and parenting together to help caregivers take care of themselves. Fighting Autism provides readers with psychological and philosophical strategies that center around mindset change and acceptance. Parables and poetry guide readers through difficult and painful subjects and contain lessons that can apply to any parent of any child. Personal stories of a decade of raising two children with special needs establish common ground and illustrate Walsh's transformational approaches to dealing with parental stress. Parents of children with autism or Asperger syndrome are a group we must not ignore. We have seen a rise in the diagnosis of autism, especially in boys. Whether you believe in the theory of an epidemic or an epidemic of misdiagnosis, either way, at the end of the day, there are parents struggling to keep their families, homes, jobs, and dreams intact as they care for children who have a different way of interacting with the world. Steve Walsh employs love and empathy, meditation and centering, exercise and healing. All the while, readers know he has tremendous love, respect, and admiration for his own children as well as all children and adults with autism. His examples are always conscious of the effort special needs children put into getting through their day, appreciative of their individual habits and idiosyncrasies, and respectful of their right to not change, to not seek a cure for how they are. As readers come back, again and again, to the tactics and strategies in the book, they will find new utility in every chapter. The guidance to achieve mindset change; the tactics of changing focus, declining to compare, and opening our minds to the way children engage with the world; the invitation to be an instructor at all times by modeling strength, practicing patience, and teaching joy; and the rejection of parental guilt by understanding that we walk a path that no one else has walked-travel where no one else has been-in our own relationship with our unique child...all come together in a powerful approach to the art of parenting children with autism. Parents do not need to be martial artists to fall in love with this book. Martial artists do not need to be parents of children with special needs to appreciate its lessons. Fighting Autism has the power to change the way society approaches and perceives people with autism and the parents who love them.
Author Biography:
Steve Walsh is a first degree black belt (shodan) in both Goju Kai karate and Judo. Having grown up in California's southern San Joaquin valley, his life has centered around teaching and learning, despite the warnings of his parents who both had long careers in education. Steve and his wife Claudia, also an educator, were born in the same home town hospital where they still live and raise their sons, Liam and Luke. Steve is proud to be the father of two boys who have a unique way of interpreting and interacting with the world. His hope is to use his work to connect parents to other parents who face similar challenges, push through dark times, and work daily toward progress and prosperity for their children, whatever their ages may be. He considers himself a full-time father, but during the day he works at CSU Bakersfield as the Director of the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). For the past 20 years he has worked in EOP, Guardian Scholars, and Summer Bridge-a transitional program for admitting first-generation economically-disadvantaged freshmen. He also serves as faculty, teaching classes in the First-Year Experience program as well as Judo and Self-Defense for the Department of Kinesiology.
