Love, Jean
Review of a Small Book
Copyright © 2004 Roger N. Meyer
All Rights Reserved
A family member whose deceased relatives
included A. Jean Ayers, of Sensory Integration Disorder fame, sent me a
small book. The book contains the unpublished letters of Dr.
Ayers
to her 14 year old nephew, separated from her by the distance of our two
coasts. In her letters, she offers to train him by mail, using the best of
what she had developed at the time, to challenge the effects of his Sensory
Integration Disorder.
14 years was a bit old, she thought at the time, but
she was interested in his welfare as aunts can be sometimes. He was having
terrible times with math and handling other typical middle and high school
subject matter. During the time of the letters, he was at one school,
perhaps two, but in his own interspersed short chapters, he tells us his
life story as a mature adult, reflecting on his experiences as a child,
adolescent, and young adult growing up with he knew not what until his aunt
named it.
The book is not an guide to Sensory Integration
Disorder. It is a brief story of one person's unfolding, recollections, and
triumphs. There's way too much written about Sensory Integration Therapy as
an occupational therapy and speech language pathology specialization to go
into in this brief review. Besides, at the back of the book, there is
reference information regarding Dr. Ayers' initial and later contributions
to a field for which she is now largely remembered.
Between the chapters containing Ayers's coaching and
encouraging words to her nephew Phil Erwin, and his reflections on growing
up with SID, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and major vestibular and apraxia of
motion issues, there are the occasional short chapters written by Zoe
Mailloux, an occupational therapist who introduces the new reader, the new
parent first learning of this disorder, to some of the basic concepts about
SID, and its connection with autism and other developmental differences.
The book is an easy read.
Phil has moved in his adult life from being a highly
qualified Emergency Medicine Technician, professional and trainer, to
university where a Philosophy degree did him no good other than providing
him with an advanced vocabulary and teaching the value of discipline as he
successfully completed a four year degree program. He happened upon a boat
wright who taught him the advanced skills of wood boat restoration,
something he engages in at the moment, when he isn't otherwise hiking,
mountain biking, and taking thoughtful breathers from his own self-employed
business. Of course, there's his family, which he doesn't speak much about,
but most likely is appreciative of his wisdom.
The book is a pleasure. Short. Sweet. To the point
And funny, at least with Phillip's recollections. Ayers comes across as
someone involved, but somehow, in her own style of writing, quite distant
and only slightly pedantic. Just from her letters, I can understand how
others found her a complicated person to understand. The contributions of
the third author, Zoe Mailloux, fall somewhere in between informality and
concise one-step guide types of writing. Easily tolerable for short
chapters, but were they longer, probably a bit wearing, even for the
tolerant reader.
This is a "gift book" for those who have the basics.
Others have written far more in detail about learning disorders and SID. A
comfortable small book, it might be a nice present for those who have a bit
of everything in their collections. Published by the small Erwin family
press in Santa Rosa California, Crestport Press, it may be somewhat
difficult but not impossible to order. One noted endorser of the book,
Carol Stock Kranowitz, MA, may be known to some of us as the author of
The Out-of -Sync Child, a great introduction to the intimate
frustrations of parents and children alike, as they both struggle with the
manifestations of Sensory Integration Disorder.
The book's simple title is a reflection of one of the
author's closings in her never-before published letters to her nephew:
Love, Jean
Full title: Love, Jean - Inspiration for Families Living with Dysfunction
of Sensory Integration
Authors: A. Jean Ayers, Ph.D., OTR, Phillip R. Erwin, BA, and Zoe Maillou,
MA, OTR
Publisher: Crestport Press, Santa Rosa, CA
2004
ISBN 0-9725098-1-X (Paperback) retail price, $15.95
Some
are the melody, some are the rhythm, some are the harmony