TalkAbility: People Skills for Verbal Children on the Autism Spectrum: A Guide for Parents, by speech-language pathologist Fern Sussman, MHSc, is a wonderful guidebook for parents to follow to strengthen and enhance verbal ability in children who are on the autism spectrum. It is written in very simple language and easy to follow.

Sussman includes multiple checklists to help parents figure out exactly what skills they need to target and information on how to target them. It provides numerous ideas on how to increase participation and improve communicative interactions.

The book targets several key areas of communication that were of importance to me as a speech-language pathologist. The author stresses the importance of understanding how we interact with the child, providing multiple ways we can adapt our behavior to coach the child to positive communication interactions. She discusses learning styles and the interactive styles that adults use with children.

Once you figure out how you interact with a child and can see how the child reacts to individual styles, you can determine which style is more effective. The book provides a structure for observing behaviors and identifies ways to continuously improve your style to benefit the child.

The "Four S's"- say less, stress, go slow and show - help parents exaggerate what they want to say without words so the child is not overwhelmed. To help with conversational skills, Sussman identifies the parts of a good conversation using the acronym ICE (initiate, continue, end) and provides ways to work with a child on each part.

In addition, she discusses her "I-Cues" for conversation: include, interpret, introduce and insist. These cues help parents scaffold the communication interaction and assist children in understanding when it is their turn to talk and how to continue a conversation.

Sussman introduces a five-stage approach to help children "tune in" to their partners, offering specific strategies for interactions. She also discusses levels of social play skills and how to be a coach for a child.

This user-friendly book is a great resource for parents and classroom teachers, who will appreciate the step-by-step strategies for dealing with the strengths and weaknesses of children and their interactions with them. It also is a nice reminder for school and medical professionals who work with children exhibiting behaviors that are typical of autism.

Amber Orton is on staff in the Colorado public school system.

The book is available from Hanen Resources, online: www.hanen.org. Price: $49.