The One and Only Sam: A Story Explaining Idioms for Children With Asperger Syndrome and Other Communication Difficulties

The One and Only Sam is the heart-warming story of a boy who, like many children, often struggles to understand the strange sayings that adults can be heard to use. Throughout the story, Sam encounters a range of common idioms. Each idiom is accompanied by an illustration of its literal interpretation and its real meaning, encouraging children to explore what sayings such as 'curiosity killed the cat', 'on the ball', and 'full of beans' sound like and what they might really mean. Special emphasis is placed on the 'feeling aspect' of each idiom, encouraging children to think about the implied emotions of the words when thinking about what they might mean. The book also suggests simple steps that children can take whenever they encounter new and unfamiliar idioms that are not covered in the book. A list of additional books and websites provides further resources to help children learn about idioms.