Book review: The Spark, A mother’s story of Nurturing Genius

This is a book that I accidentally read.  How does one ‘accidentally’ read a book?  You scan over the title, read the synopsis, pick out words that you’re interested in and ignore the rest.  In my case I read “mom-nurturing-genius”.  Well I want my child to be as smart as he can possible be, this is a book I must read.  In reality, and thankfully, The Spark is not the book I thought it was; it’s much better, uplifting, inspirational and all but mandatory for parents of autistic children.

When Kristine Barnett’s son Jacob was 2 years old he was diagnosed with autism.  The doctors said that he might never even be able to tie his own shoes.  Jacob went into a period where he would not communicate with anyone, just looking down at his chest.  This period went on for more than a year and Barnet’s account of that is moving.

It wasn’t until Barnett had a conversation with one of Jacob’s teachers that things started to radically change.  The teacher was detailing what he could not do-and the list was long.  They then went on to say that he may never really function physically, be able to tie his shoes and so on.

At that point Barnett pulled him out of school and took a long drive in the country.  Jacob loved going for drives in the country.  During that drive she decided to concentrate on what he could do, instead of what he could not do.

She started schooling him at home, let him be who he was and concentrated on learning through play.  He would do seemingly odd things like make a maze out of string in the kitchen, get distracted by patterns or other detailed organizational acts. She noticed one day that he had aligned all of the Hot Wheels in accordance to the shades on a color chart.  Shortly after that his learning started to excel at an unbelievable pace.

The book is inspirational for anybody because Barnett goes through a series of goals, progress, disappointments and success.  Very few things happened for her and her family the first time.  She also had health issues, difficult pregnancies and more things that make you want to will strength to her.

Jacob’s is at his core a young pre teen.  But he’s also a genius with an IG higher than Einstein and at the age of 12 years old is working as a researcher in quantum physics. For proof of how intelligent he is consider that he taught himself calculus in 2 weeks.

This is a great book.  I was smiling throughout the time I spent reading it.  For all of the setbacks and difficulties the family, and Jacob, never let it get to them.  It’s a lesson in patience, acceptance and hard work that anybody can appreciate and learn from.  The lessons are especially strong for parents of autistic children.

Their lesson is never give up.  Do what you do and keep doing it.  Your autistic child may not be as intellectually advanced as Jacob, but they’re in there.  That’s the takeaway for any parent who might read this book, never give up.