Collaborative Care and Partnerships in Autism Diagnosis and Treatment

This book examines strategies for strengthening collaborations - and improving sometimes problematic relationships - between therapists, parents, and autistic children. It emphasizes the importance of therapists involving parents in their child's interventions and details ways in which therapists can train parents to practice the same cognitive, emotional, and behavioral skills their child needs to develop and improve. In addition, the book describes how primary care providers can empower parents to become collaborative partners, giving them tools and strategies to move forward with their concerns and weigh different options in seeking help. Chapters focus on critical therapeutic moments that encourage children to discover who they are, develop their own willpower as well as connect past, present and future events to become more socially connected.
Key areas of coverage include:
- Describing the ways in which culture and gender may affect diagnosis and treatment of autistic children.
- Exploring intervention strategies that ensure the best possible outcomes for autistic children.
- Examining therapeutic issues that span the difficult period of receiving a diagnosis through early childhood, youth, and adulthood.
- Leveraging the elements of connection between parents and their autistic children to ensure therapeutic success.
Collaborative Care and Partnerships in Autism Diagnosis and Treatment is an invaluable resource for clinicians, therapists, and other professionals as well as researchers, professors, and graduate students in clinical child and school psychology, developmental psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, clinical social work, special education, speech-language therapy, and all related disciplines.

Susan Lowinger, Ph.D., is a developmental and clinical psychologist who worked for many years as the chief psychologist in developmental clinics. She lectured in the Education Department at Bar Ilan University and was head of its adjunct clinic for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. In this capacity, Dr. Lowinger oversaw yearly conferences for educators, clinicians, parents, and researchers to expand their means of working with children on the spectrum. In addition, she ran a weekly lecture series for the parents and clinicians who worked in the clinic. In her private practice, Dr. Lowinger works with autistic individuals and their families. In recent years, she has edited six books about the diagnosis and treatment of autism. The sixth book, Autism in Adulthood, which she co-edited with Dr. Shiri Pealrman-Avnion (2019, Springer Nature), addresses the many facets of autism in adulthood, including diagnosis, employment, residential issues, romantic relationships and sexuality.
Shiri Pearlman-Avnion, Ph.D., is an educational psychologist and lecturer at Tel-Hai Academic College, specializing in autism spectrum disorder, metacognition, theory of mind and social cognition. Her work has been instrumental in advancing the understanding of cognitive and social development among individuals with autism, particularly in the areas of language use, social interaction, and the impact of metacognitive skills on learning outcomes. Dr. Pearlman-Avnion held a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR), Boston University Medical School, from 2002 to 2005. In addition to her academic role, Dr. Pearlman-Avnion runs a private clinic that focuses on therapy and diagnostics for children, adolescents, and adults with autism. She co-edited the book, Autism in Adulthood (2019, Springer Nature), exploring the unique challenges faced by adults on the autism spectrum and bridging theoretical insights with practical approaches.