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A Mother, Her Autistic Son, and the Kindness of Machines
by Judith Newman
Book Reviewed by:From the author of the viral New York Times op-ed column "To Siri with Love" comes a collection of touching, hilarious, and illuminating stories about life with a thirteen-year-old boy with autism that hold insights and revelations for us all.
When Judith Newman shared the story of how Apple's electronic personal assistant, Siri, helped Gus, her son who has autism, she received widespread media attention and an outpouring of affection from readers around the world. Basking in the afterglow of media attention, Gus told anyone who would listen, "I'm a movie star."
Judith's story of her son and his bond with Siri was an unusual tribute to technology. While many worry that our electronic gadgets are dumbing us down, she revealed how they can give voice to others, including children with autism like Gus - a boy who has trouble looking people in the eye, hops when he's happy, and connects with inanimate objects on an empathetic level.
To Siri with Love is a collection of funny, poignant, and uplifting stories about living with an extraordinary child who has helped a parent see and experience the world differently. From the charming (Gus weeping with sympathy over the buses that would lie unused while the bus drivers were on strike) to the painful (paying $22,000 for a behaviorist in Manhattan to teach Gus to use a urinal) to the humorous (Gus's insistence on getting naked during all meals, whether at home or not, because he does not want to get his clothes dirty) to the profound (how an automated "assistant" helped a boy learn how to communicate with the rest of the world), the stories in To Siri with Love open our eyes to the magic and challenges of a life beyond the ordinary.
I wholeheartedly recommend To Siri With Love for all audiences. Reading groups in particular will find it a good candidate for discussion. The book likely won't radically alter most people's views about autism sufferers and their loved ones. It will, however, bring more understanding as people come to know the author and her truly remarkable son...continued
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(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
In Judith Newman's To Siri With Love, one of the book's chapters conveys how important the personal digital assistant has become to the author's son, Gus.
According to Britannica.com a personal digital assistant (PDA) is "a handheld organizer used to store contact information, manage calendars, communicate by e-mail, and handle documents and spreadsheets, usually in communication with the user's personal computer." In the 1990s, the devices were digitized versions of pen-and-paper organizers, one of the more popular being the Palm Pilot released in 1996. As hand-held computing became more advanced with the advent of smartphones, PDAs have evolved as well. Apple's Siri was the first widely known of this new type of virtual assistant.
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