The Secret Language of Dolphins

This book is fascinating. However, there are a few things that really "date" the book and are a little "off-putting." The author's continual use of the terms "autistics," "paraplegics," and "wheelchair-bound" - are clearly terms from days gone by. Today it is customary and more respectful to speak of people who use wheelchairs (rather than being "bound" to them), people who have autism or paraplegia. The Person-First movement (which advocates putting the person first before the disability) has helped us to think of individuals as PEOPLE - all of whom have unique traits. Disability is just one of many aspects of an individual. Therefore, the person is not an "autistic." But rather, a person who sees the world in a very unique way, who has many different likes and dislikes, and for which disability is part of, but not the entire defining feature of one's life. The author seems to group people with autism into one big group and loses the individuality of the people she is tying so desperately to understand. Perhaps this kind of thinking is reflective of the time in which the book was written (early 1990s), but it still takes something away from understanding the unique individuals she had a chance to meet and study. Other than this, I would highly recommend this book. It is engaging, enlightening, and very entertaining.

This is an extraordinary telling of a very engrossing subject, from a clinical and a very personal viewpoint: how cetacaens and humans can interact.Ms. St. John pays particular attention to ways that being with dolphins and porpoises can have special value in pulling autistic humans into a larger world, along with her own notes of general life.Very recommended.