The Child Who Does Not Know How to Ask

This chapter discusses the parable of the four sons, in which the author relates via the character of the wise son known as the “the child who does not know how to ask.” It talks about the representation of the “simple” child that already represents those with learning differences or intellectual disabilities. It also mentions how disability is seldom addressed in the Old Testament, noting that Moses allegedly suffered from a speech impediment. The chapter describes a token directive not to insult the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind but is belied by the treatment of the few disabled people mentioned in the Bible. It elaborates how the New Testament, by contrast to the Old Testament, is full of disabled people.

Baseline

This chapter describes electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) that stabilized Jonah's rapid-cycling bipolar disorder in 2010 after exhaustive medication trials, elaborate behavior plans, and a ten-month hospitalization failed. It details how Jonah experiences mild episodes of agitation with no obvious environmental triggers toward the end of the treatment interval. It also analyses the term “baseline,” which refers to an original, predisease state. The chapter describes Jonah's treatments that were therapeutic to the extent they restored optimal, baseline functioning. It discusses opponents of medicating children that are fierce and pervasive, such as in books with ominous titles like The Silenced Child and Suffer the Children, and certain articles featured on well-respected platforms.

Answers and Questions

This chapter refers to Ben, a child with autism who the author met during a make-up music class, that reminded her of Jonah at music class when he was two. It talks about mothers of autistic children, who find an ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) diagnosis to be nothing and consider it a minor bump in the developmental road that they would swap for in a heartbeat. It also looks at children with ADHD that grow into young people who go to college, pursue careers, live independently, get married, and have families, while kids with autism have indeterminate futures. The chapter recounts how Jonah was kicked out of his in-district autistic support class after breaking a teacher's nose when he was eight years old. It emphasizes how living with any disorder makes any person an expert.

The Next Time

This chapter cites a Pennsylvania family that was kicked out of a Friendly's restaurant because their autistic five-year-old was crying and a Tennessee mother who was asked to leave a pizzeria because her autistic toddler was disturbing other customers. It talks about autistic children who have been escorted off airplanes, expelled from public gardens, and ejected from Finding Dory, a children's movie commonly interpreted as a story about disability. It also reviews online debates that erupt between those who plead for empathy and inclusion for children with autism and those who berate parents for expecting others to accommodate their children's disruptive behavior. The chapter elaborates how the strangeness of autistic behavior disturbs people, and not simply the volume of the noise. It refers to scholars that have argued against the depiction of the physically and intellectually disabled as “other.”

Praesidalism

This chapter explains how it is easy for the author to focus on the communicative function of language when a mother has a child with minimal language. It points out how language remains a blunt instrument in the author's house as she paid more attention to equipping Jonah with tools to express his preferences. It also discusses vitriol that was being exchanged online over whether to use the phrase “autistic person” or “person with autism.” The chapter emphasizes the person-first language endorsed by the disability rights movement since the 1980s. It refers to Lydia Brown and other self-advocates that opt for identity-first language, such as “autistic person” or simply “autistic,” as they understand that autism is an inherent part of an individual's identity.

We Walk

This chapter focuses on the author's experience with her twenty-one-year-old son, Jonah, who has severe autism as they walk around Atlantic City. It mentions home in Philadelphia, where they hike through Valley Forge National Park and Fairmount Park, the largest city park in the world. It also refers to their walk around their neighbors' field or up and down their driveway, which is harder than it sounds since it's a quarter of a mile up a steep hill. The chapter talks about the laps they did around the top deck of a cruise ship to the Bahamas but had to abort once they discovered how determined Jonah was to launch himself overboard the way he likes to jump off the little motorboat. It recounts their walk on the beach at Key Largo and down abandoned railroad tracks by the Susquehanna River in Maryland.

Physical Guidance

This chapter describes Jonah's life, which is described as an endless onslaught of impositions. It relates the things Jonah learned from the earliest age that were considered difficult and contested for severely autistic children, such as speaking, toilet training, table manners, and basic academic skills. It also mentions Jonah's time in the feeding clinic at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was forced to eat. The chapter describes Jonah's diet when he was three years old, which was nothing but pretzels smeared with peanut butter. It examines Jonah's extreme selectivity towards food, which was explained by experts as an overall regression that many autistic kids experience between the ages of one and two.

All Possible Spaces

This chapter emphasizes how Jonah never had friendships with other children, even after being taken to toddler playgroups, Gymboree, and Sally's Music Circle. It notes Robert Selman's five-level theory of friendship that is based on neurotypical development. It also examines that the author's assumptions about what friendship looks like were based on the interactions of her children and memories of her own early relationships. The chapter describes Jonah's most meaningful relationships, which have been with paid caregivers who have worked with him at home or school. It refers to philosophers who have wrestled with the definition and significance of a friendly relationship since Aristotle observed that without friends no one would choose to live.

Just Say Yes

This chapter mentions the pharma CBD oral spray, which the author saw on her Facebook feed that had allegedly caused a nine-year-old autistic Puerto Rican boy to utter his first words. It refers to Marie Myung-Ok Lee of Rhode Island, who published a four-part series on Slate about why she decided to give her nine-year-old marijuana. It also speculates whether CBD might help Jonah with the myoclonic seizures he had been experiencing with increasing frequency. The chapter recounts antiseizure drugs that had been prescribed to Jonah as a young child to control his mood but had terrible side effects, such as rapid weight gain. It talks about Jennifer Abbanat, who has been treating her fourteen-year-old son with various cannabis products for several years.