Book Review: Strange Son by Portia Iversen

Strange Son: Two Mothers, Two Sons, and the Quest to Unlock the Hidden World of Autism by Portia Iversen is essentially a story of a mother's quest to find the key to communicating with her autistic son. While she, herself, finds answers, the larger questions still remain.

Portia Iversen, the author of this book, is a sitcom writer, a co-founder of Cure Autism Now (now a part of Autism Speaks), and the mother of Dov, a severely autistic boy. She is also the wife of Jonathan Shestack, a successful Hollywood producer.

Iversen's credentials and connections explain some of her book's significant coverage in the national media. Equally potent, however, is her message, which suggests that there really is a means whereby parents can finally discover their autistic child's hidden voice. Surely any parent of a non-verbal child will read this book and wonder if their child, like Iversen's, is actually "hiding" beneath his or her autism.

The book is essentially the story of how Iversen contacted and connected with Soma Mukhopadhyay, an Indian woman who had taught her own autistic son, Tito, to communicate by pointing to the letters on a carboard keyboard. Intrigued by Soma's success, Iverson brings mother and son to the U.S., and proceeds to work desperately to prove that Soma and Tito are for real. She has Tito tested by various scientists and researchers, presents him to the board of Cure Autism Now, and even starts a school with Soma as its lead teacher.

Over the course of their association, Soma works with Iversen's son, Dov, and teaches him to "point." His parents are thrilled as he demonstrates real intelligence, humor, and connectedness. Toward the end of the book, Iversen explains that she feels a strong sense of obligation to provide the entire autism community with the same tools she's discovered - and so she is working with Soma on a manual, creating a new foundation, and building a web-based community, all in support of this effort.

I checked out the websites for the book, for Soma's new school in Texas, and for Iversen's "Descartes Foundation." Iversen's own sites were both "under construction," and Soma's site included an FAQ which specifically disassociated her from Iverson's book and work.

Baffled, I contacted Cure Autism Now - and was lucky enough to be able to set up a face-to-face meeting with Iversen.

Iversen turned out to a lovely person, who shared more than two hours of her time to talk about her experiences, her hopes and her concerns. So far, she says, the scientific community has not leaped into deeper exploration of the phenomenon she describes in her book; the reason, she says, is skepticism.

That skepticism seems reasonable, since Tito, the autistic poet, has so far been unable to communicate at all when his mother is out of the room - and neither Tito nor Dov seem to be able to initiate or maintain conversation without a prompter available. These realities certainly raise questions in the minds of scientifically minded readers. While Iversen is absolutely certain that Soma's method is legitimate, even researchers affliated with Cure Autism Now have apparently passed on the opportunity to dig deeper into this apparently miraculous technique.

Of course, many great discoveries have been scorned by the scientific establishment - and the field of autism is littered with advocates for treatments that may, or may not, have real significance. But even assuming that Iversen is correct while the skeptics are wrong, I wondered - what happened to her mission of outreach?

It turns out that, just as is hinted at in the book, Iversen and Mukhopadhyay really have parted ways. Mukhopadhyay has started her own practice in Austin, Texas, to further her now-trademarked "Rapid Prompting Method" of reaching and communicating with people on the autism spectrum. As of now, Soma does run conferences and trainings, but she is adamant on her site that only through her and her organization (HALO) can this method be properly taught.

Iversen disagrees. She herself did learn the technique from Soma, but she has also taught it to others. Right now, she is working on a short introductory manual to the technique, which she says will be published on her website sometime in the spring of 2007. She is starting up an online community, which she hopes will become a self-supporting network of "pointing" advocates. Her non-profit Descartes Institute, which she started not long ago, will become a fundraising insitution in support of the same method.