Sound of a Miracle is Annabel Stehli’s riveting story of her daughter Georgiana’s triumphant progress from autisitic and functionally retarded to gifted. In curing Georgie’s painful hearing, her most distressing symptom, a new intervention called auditory training made it possible for her to enjoy communication and to excel academically. The interest sparked by Sound of a Miracle resulted in the founding of what is now The Georgiana Institute, the validation of auditory training as a thoroughly researched treatment modality, and its availability worldwide.

First published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1991, this book was a Literary Guild Alternate Selection, and has been translated into Chinese, Dutch and German. Currently in its fifth printing, it has also been condensed and published in The Reader’s Digest, and acquired by numerous public libraries.

Reviews of  Sound of a Miracle

“Stehli’'s is a powerful story of courage, hope and determination” - Library Journal (Highly Recommended)

“. . . pinions the reader to the page. Stehli ... keeps up a rattling pace, has a convincing ear for dialogue and a vivid way with description.” - Rachel Billington, London Sunday Times

“Stehli’s revelations, especially her insights into battling the medical community, are invaluable for any parent of a child with a physical or psychological disorder.” - Booklist (starred review)

“ ... very readable. She [Stehli] has the ability to walk through her pages as a real person so that the reader reacts with her, thinks with her, and certainly feels with her. She has the gift of writing. ” - Norman Vincent Peale

“Well written and incredibly moving, the book shows that you should fight for what you believe is right for your child.” - Parents Magazine (U.K.)

Dancing in the Rain is a guide to the world of learning disablities, developmental delay and autism. An inspiring and riveting selection of stories, they are written with candor and intelligence by the parents of children with special needs and edited by Annabel Stehli.


This is a comprehensive, fully indexed collection of twenty two case histories of children with special needs that include attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, hyperlexia, pervasive developmental delay, communication delay, central auditory processing disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome, and autism. Individualized treatments such as Auditory Integration Training, vision therapy, behavior modification (Lovaas, OPTION), and nutritional intervention are pursued and found to be successful stategies that work. “How I wish a book like this had been available when my daughter was first diagnosed. It would have made all the difference,” says Annabel Stehli.

“COMPELLING...HEARTWARMING...INSPIRING...these true stories are a MUST-READ for parents of young children with Attention Deficit Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Delay, Autism and related disorders.”   -  Juliana Kurtz - “The Advocate”, Autism Society of America


“A wonderful contribution to literature, to the field, and to parents, teachers, researchers... an inspiring work.” - Donna Geffner, Ph.D.,Audiologist and Researcher, St. Johns University, Jamaica, NY


“Written by families for families, professionals will also find Dancing in the Rain enormously helpful.” -  Beverly Hall, M.A., CCC/SLP, Auditory Training Institute, Henderson, TX


“Dancing in the Rain is excellent.” - Guy Berard, M.D., Otolaryngologist, Annecy, France


“...a wonderful book” - William C. Crook, M.D., American Academy of Pediatrics, author of  The Yeast Connection

After writing the celebrated Sound of a Miracle, Annabel Stehli received letters from hundreds of parents who were facing similar questions with their own children. As a result, she compiled many of their stories in Dancing in the Rain, a book that has given hope to thousands who have experienced autism in their own families. Now, many years later, Annabel has edited a new volume, Sound of Falling Snow, with stories about recovery from autism and related disorders. These stories, fourteen in all, written by parents should serve to inspire and encourage parents who may feel that they are fighting the battle alone.

“I just love happy endings. When the subject is autism, however, the story seldom ends happily . . . Until now. Sound of Falling Snow is a collection of happy endings to a story that really began a little over a decade ago, when Annabel Stehli first published Sound of a Miracle. At that time, autism was considered a devastating, lifelong, essentially untreatable, disorder, and yet one child had defied her diagnosis. When other parents read that child’s story, they longed for the number to increase to at least two.
Within five years, the numbers had gone up much highter than that, thanks to Annabel. The middle of the tale is chronicled in Dancing in the Rain: Stories of Exceptional Progress. . . I was privileged to be one of the contributors to that middle volume, since my own six-year-old son was one of the lucky ones - I hoped.
And now, finally, we have the end of the story. Annabel’s solitary voice, which became a revolt, has now become a revolution. Sound of Falling Snow presents stories of recovery - not acceptance, not resignation, but recovery. My own son, now fifteen, was able to independently write his own essay for this final volume, and other kids, I’m sure, would have written theirs, too if they weren’t so busy with their schoolwork and activities. Autism is no longer the tragedy it once was; on the contrary, for many of our kids, all the world is now their stage. – Joan Matthews, Co-author,The Self-Help Guide for Special Kids and their Parents


“After auditory integration training, (AIT) my five-year-old’s language development and ability to tune in to her environment improved enormously. As AIT was the only change in her therapy at the time, we attribute her growth in these areas to AIT.” – Michelle McNally, TACA (Talking about Curing Autism Support Group for Parents), San Diego


“When I was four, Leo Kanner told my mother to put me in an institution. She did — Yale!” – Mark Romoser