Books with category Autism
Displaying 5 books

Sincerely, Your Autistic Child

Sincerely, Your Autistic Child is a rare and diverse collection of autistic voices that highlights the unique needs of girls and nonbinary people growing up with autism.

Most resources for parents come from the medical model of disability, offering a narrow and technical approach to autism. It is widely believed that many autistic girls and women are underdiagnosed, limiting the information available regarding the unique needs of girls and nonbinary people with autism.

Sincerely, Your Autistic Child represents an authentic resource for parents and others who care about autism, written by those who understand this experience most: autistic people themselves. From childhood and education to culture, gender identity, and sexuality, this anthology tackles the everyday challenges of growing up while honestly addressing the emotional needs, sensitivity, and vibrancy of the autistic community, with a special focus on autistic girls and nonbinary people.

Written like letters to parents, the contributors reflect on what they have learned while growing up with autism and how parents can avoid common mistakes and overcome challenges while raising their child.

This book calls parents to action by raising awareness and redefining "normal" in order to help parents make their child feel truly accepted, valued, and celebrated for who they are.

The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

2016

by Naoki Higashida

Written by Naoki Higashida, a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, The Reason I Jump is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine.

Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one, at last, have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within.

Using an alphabet grid to painstakingly construct words, sentences, and thoughts that he is unable to speak out loud, Naoki answers even the most delicate questions that people want to know. Questions such as: “Why do people with autism talk so loudly and weirdly?” “Why do you line up your toy cars and blocks?” “Why don’t you make eye contact when you’re talking?” and “What’s the reason you jump?” (Naoki’s answer: “When I’m jumping, it’s as if my feelings are going upward to the sky.”)

With disarming honesty and a generous heart, Naoki shares his unique point of view on not only autism but life itself. His insights—into the mystery of words, the wonders of laughter, and the elusiveness of memory—are so startling, so strange, and so powerful that you will never look at the world the same way again.

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

2015

by Steve Silberman

NeuroTribes is a groundbreaking book that upends conventional thinking about autism and suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and full participation in society for people who think differently.

What is autism? Is it a lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth, it is all of these things and more—and the future of our society depends on our understanding it.

Steve Silberman, a WIRED reporter, unearths the secret history of autism, long suppressed by the same clinicians who became famous for discovering it, and finds surprising answers to the crucial question of why the number of diagnoses has soared in recent years.

Going back to the earliest days of autism research and chronicling the brave and lonely journey of autistic people and their families through the decades, Silberman provides long-sought solutions to the autism puzzle, while mapping out a path for our society toward a more humane world in which people with learning differences and those who love them have access to the resources they need to live happier, healthier, more secure, and more meaningful lives.

Along the way, he reveals the untold story of Hans Asperger, the father of Asperger’s syndrome, whose "little professors" were targeted by the darkest social-engineering experiment in human history; exposes the covert campaign by child psychiatrist Leo Kanner to suppress knowledge of the autism spectrum for fifty years; and casts light on the growing movement of "neurodiversity" activists seeking respect, support, technological innovation, accommodations in the workplace and in education, and the right to self-determination for those with cognitive differences.

The Autistic Brain

The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum is a groundbreaking exploration into the science of autism, authored by the renowned Temple Grandin and Richard Panek.

Weaving her own experiences with remarkable new discoveries, Grandin introduces the neuroimaging advances and genetic research that link brain science to behavior. She even shares her own brain scans from numerous studies. Readers will meet the scientists and self-advocates who are introducing innovative theories about what causes autism, how it is diagnosed, and how best to treat it.

Grandin highlights long-ignored sensory problems and the treatments that might help them, and warns of the dangers of politics defining the diagnosis of autism spectrum.

Most excitingly, in the science that has begun to reveal the long-overlooked strengths conferred by autism, she finds a route to more effective mainstreaming and a way to unleash the unique advantages of autistic people. From the "aspies" in Silicon Valley to the five-year-old without language, Grandin understands the true meaning of the word spectrum.

The Autistic Brain is essential reading from one of the most respected and beloved voices in the field.

Marcelo in the Real World

Marcelo Sandoval hears music that no one else can hear—part of an autism-like impairment that no doctor has been able to identify. He's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom to experience "the real world."

There, Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm. He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it's a picture he finds in a file—a picture of a girl with half a face—that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.

This extraordinary novel is a love story, a legal drama, and a celebration of the music each of us hears inside.

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