EDA303 Padlet by Kathryn Ewing

Summary of Book

ke973242_1 — 2024-05-01 22:20:21 UTC

Letters to Sam is a book about the exploration of life, relationships, and love written by Daniel Gottlieb, a quadriplegic psychologist for his grandson Sam, who was born severely autistic. These letters included in this book share experiences that Sam could run into throughout his life and how they will be different for him than anyone else. He also shares wisdom and how to navigate challenges that life throws at us, and how to find happiness in everything. He writes among many themes like acceptance, human connection, and life advice for his grandson. The author writes this book not only for Sam but for himself to go through Sam’s future limitations he will face and the complexities of Sam’s condition. Through this, he discovers many lessons about the power of love, importance of acceptance, and resilience.

Main Ideas/Themes of Book

ke973242_1 — 2024-05-01 22:20:54 UTC

1. Love and relationships: This book goes over how important bonds between family members are, especially the love between a grandfather and his grandson. Daniel Gottlieb emphasizes love and relationships within this book to give Sam advice and background about his life when he was young.

2. Resilience: Daniel Gottlieb starts out by reflecting on his owwn resilience after he became a quadriplegic from a spinal cord injury. He talks about this in hopes to relate to Sam’s condition, and to show him that even when you are different from others, you can still overcome obstacles. He shares his own insights and experiences accepting the challenges life gave him and being able to find strength in the darkness.

Loss and grief: Daniel Gpttlieb discusses his physical limitations he faced after his spinal cord surgery, and the challenges of caring for a grandson with special needs. He finds many ways to find purpose and meaning in these struggles for both him and his grandson.

How connects to Class

ke973242_1 — 2024-05-01 22:21:27 UTC

This book connects to the content we learned in class in many different ways. We have learned about autism and the characteristics of autism, which were discussed in the book when the author was describing Sam’s condition. “Autism is a disorder characterized by impairments in social, emotional, and intellectual functioning” (p. 84). This is a definition of autism found in the textbook which we have gone over in class. In Letters to Sam, we learned how Sam gets pretty frustrated with change, and that is when he gets so frustrated that he sometimes hits his head on things out of frustration. This is unfortunately a behavior seen in autism which would be characterized as self-injury. Letters to Sam shares stories of Sam when he would get frustrated like this, and the grandfather left a lot of good advice on how to learn how to control it at times for when he gets older.

Personal Reflection

ke973242_1 — 2024-05-01 22:21:50 UTC

I really enjoyed reading this book, I finished it in just one sitting on a plane on my way to spring break. I really liked how the book went through all of the struggles of the grandfather’s life and related it to some of the struggles that Sam could face in the future. This book went over all of the points that make life beautiful like love, family, friends, human connection, and acceptance. My Poppop writes me letters from time to time since they live down the shore and I don’t get the chance to see them during the school year as much as I used to, and I’ve kept every one he has written, so this book was really special for me to read.

Connection to Outside World

ke973242_1 — 2024-05-02 18:54:37 UTC

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-are-the-three-levels-of-autism-260233