TITLE: Life on the Bridge: Linking My World to Yours as an Autistic Therapist (Kindle Edition)
AUTHOR: Partlow, Kaelynn
SUBJECT AREA: Autism-General
PUBLISHER: Morrow
PUBLICATION DATE: 2025
NUMBER OF PAGES: 188 (for Print Edition)
BY: Anne Carpenter
This book, with added new material, is a unique one in that the author was a participant in Netflix’s Emmy winning documentary series Love on the Spectrum. The author is both autistic and an ABA therapist, so she is writing from two worlds: that of an adult woman with ASD and a professional therapist working with children.
The book is divided into several parts with Part I: Framing Our Bridge, which is a description of the author’s autism and how she progressed from a child who didn’t read a book independently until she was 14 and wrote one at 27. She didn’t go to college but speaks to college faculty about helping their students. Her life was turned around by Project Hope Foundation and now she works full-time as a therapist and drives her own car. Her life has many contradictions, but she can go between “worlds” and cross a bridge. Now, through her education and training with Project Hope, she is a behavioral therapist who has taught students how to use a communication device and provides home, community and clinical support for clients with dangerous behavior and with people from 3 to 25.
Part I is devoted to an intro to autism. The author describes what autism is and is not and she serves up a strong dose of reality in saying that autism is not a superpower, emphasizing the fact that many people with autism face steep challenges and need support. She also attempts to discount the view that autism is a “difference,” rather than a disability, she believes autism is a disability that requires supports and accommodations throughout life. Part II delves into communication with one chapter on reducing ambiguity to help the child feel less anxious and confused by having questions rephrased so that they are more easily understood. In addition, the author describes how role playing was used when she was a child using little Fischer-Price dolls to teach her how to interact with others in various situations. This section also covers the use of plain language and staying on track during a conversation.
Part III is an important one as it covers behaviors with the all-too common meltdown as the starter. She describes factors leading to meltdowns and gives suggestions on how to handle them. Other topics in this section include dealing with change, repetitive behaviors, and sensory processing challenges. In Part IV: Interactions, the author discusses a topic not often covered in books about autism and that is loneliness. Many people with autism are lonely and isolated and is probably worse for adults when the supports are gone and when transportation and difficulties with finding employment become issues. This section includes the important topic of building independence and there’s even a chapter on “Adulting,” an overused term, but may have importance for some groups of people. The ABA section, Part V, includes an unapologetic praise of ABA, yet coming from an individual with autism may have some credibility with ABA detractors. The author uses her own experience with autism as a therapist to help children with autism to create a proverbial bridge. This is a useful book for every parent and teacher of children with ASD.