Targeting Autism reaches out to everyone who lives with, cares about, or is trying to understand and help a young child who has or may have autism. With special attention to recent advances in early identification and educational treatment, Shirley Cohen, a teacher of teachers, provides expert guidance for families, educators, students, therapeutic personnel, and all those interested in autistic spectrum disorders that may affect as many as one out of every 200 to 250 children. Cohen, who has no personal or professional stake in any of the various forms of treatment, leads us through an analysis of the approaches currently available, especially the educational interventions designed for young children. Readers will welcome this informed and humane combination of up-to-date research findings, personal observations, and narratives from parents and adults with autism. Targeting Autism also highlights advances in research that promise an answer to the puzzles of autism and the elimination of its devastating effects on the development of children.In a new preface and updated appendix of resources Cohen includes information about new developments and new ways of thinking that have recently modified the map of the world of autism or may do so in the near future.