Recommended For Older Teens/Adults

The goal of better mutual understanding through self-advocacy generally requires disclosure about the individual’s placement on the autism spectrum, and involves a degree of risk. Offering practical ideas and advice backed by the real-life experiences of the authors, this book is useful for individuals with all conditions, parents, and others who work, live, and care about them. – Stephen Shore

This book is an open and honest account of a long and still unfinished process of learning to live with a disability that some regard as incompatible with marriage. It is a story whose wider implications will be of compelling interest to anyone who has encountered autism spectrum conditions.

Asperger’s
Syndrome and Sexuality: From Adolescence Through
Adulthood

Isabelle Henault, Tony Attwood (Foreword)
Amazon.com Price: 22.95

This is one of the few books to clearly examine
the sexual profile and skills of individuals living
on the autism spectrum.

In this comprehensive and unique guide, Isabelle
Hénault delivers practical information and
advice on issues ranging from puberty and sexual
development, gender identity disorders, couples’
therapy to guidelines for sex education programs
and maintaining sexual boundaries. The author has
a masters degree in sexology and a doctorate of
psychology from the Quebec University in Montreal.

This practical manual will enable people diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome and high functioning autism to deepen their self-understanding and appreciate their value as working individuals. Through step-by-step self-assessment, the reader is encouraged to engage actively in a self-paced exploration of their employment history, and ultimately to identify the work best suited to their personal needs, talents and strengths. The workbook contains practical exercises, with clear explanations and examples of how to use them. Asperger Syndrome Employment Workbook will also be an essential guide for professionals, career advisors and vocational counselors as it provides in-depth guidance and research on fulfilling employment for adults and adolescents with Asperger Syndrome and high functioning autism.

This book tackles issues that are pertinent to all teenagers as well as those specific to those with AS. Contributors include professionals such as Tony Atwood along with parents, teachers, and people on the spectrum.

“While it is relatively easy for an Asperger adult to find resources that make the world more clear, it is often a difficult journey for our children to find much of anything they can relate to. No more! This book is a must-have for any young person who wants to hear in clear tones, what AS is.”

“Singularly the most thorough, sensitive resource to help children with autism spectrum disorders understand their strengths, personalities, and unique challenges.
Also equally effective in helping parents and professionals understand aspects of a child’s personality that they may not already be aware of.”
Carol Gray, author of Social Stories.

From the publisher’s website: “Individuals with developmental disorders are seven times more likely than other people to come into contact with police and their responses to encounters with the law may not always be socially appropriate. How can the needs and responses of people with autism spectrum disorders be reconciled with the duties of the police to serve and protect the community? In this book, private investigator and autism advocate Dennis Debbaudt provides essential information for both groups. For individuals with ASDs, he offers advice on how to behave in encounters with police and other law enforcement professionals.”

Jerry and Mary do a great job of tackling topics that many of us duck. I truly appreciate their emphasis upon the relationship as the cornerstone of intimacy and sexuality. – T. Bolick, parent and psychologist.

Diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome in adulthood, Jen Birch relates her story with humor and honesty, taking us through the years of frustration and confusion that led to her diagnosis.

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Sound familiar? Many people on the spectrum, family members and others in their lives feel that this book has touched a cord and is also an enjoyable read.

This career planning guide is written specifically for high-functioning adolescents and young adults on the autism spectrum, along with their families, teachers, and counselors. The authors weave together a unique blend of information and advice based on personal experiences. Temple Grandin draws from her own experience with autism spectrum disorders and her professional career, while Kate Duffy uses her expertise on employment issues and as the mother of two teenagers with autistic-like behaviors. The result is an extremely useful and practical book that introduces step-by-step processes for the job search, job expectations and interactions.
(Mostly from the amazon.com review)

A father writes about the joys, fears, frustration, exhilaration, and exhaustion involved in raising his son. The book describes a nine-year-old boy looking down at the gymnasium floor in a room filled with children who like and respect him, yet he can barely name anyone in his class, he has trouble with the simplest things – recognizing people, pretending, and knowing when people are happy or sad. But he was only one of seven fourth graders in the United States to ace the National Math Olympiad. In fifth grade he finished second in a national math talent search. That boy is autistic, loving, brilliant and resilient.

This expressive and deeply felt memoir explores how the diagnosis of the author’s son, Elijah, with Asperger’s syndrome/HFA changed her life. Paradiz, an assistant professor of German studies at Bard College, details the subsequent dissolution of her marriage and her own depression, events triggered by the problems of coping with Elijah’s needs. She describes their time together at Autreat, a camp for autistics that emphasizes self-advocacy. This is a moving personal story that highlights a new way of thinking about people diagnosed as autistic. “Publishers Weekly”

From an online review….. In addition to her own feelings, Jessy’s mother uses Jessy’s own quotations and poems to try and help others understand her daughter’s world. Like another relatively well-known autistic, Temple Grandin, Jessy is a “high-functioning” autistic. She can hold down a job, she has had art exhibitions of her drawings and she attended school for many years. Still, her world is far from what most of us would call normal and her social interactions with people outside her family are still rather limited…

Jackson, a 13-year-old from the UK, is one of seven children. He has Asperger Syndrome (AS), one of his brothers has AD/HD, and another is autistic. Jackson’s conversational and humorous text offers helpful insights into the challenges faced by those with AS, on such topics as fascinations and fixations, sensory perception, diet, sleep, teenage language, problems with socializing at school, homework, dealing with bullies, dating, and moral dilemmas. Written for adolescents with AS, and for their parents. From Book News, Inc.

The author was 25 years old when she learned her real condition was called autism. She reveals her fierce intelligence, creativity, and sense of humor as she details her attempt to come to terms with autism and her struggle to merge “my world” with “the world”.

Dr. Tony Attwood: Her insight is extraordinary and her positive attitude and strategies make this an essential guide.

The author and her young daughter have Asperger Syndrome. Willey compares her own experiences with her daughter’s, her daughter’s with her twin sister, who doesn’t have AS, and the childhood peak in intensity of her daughter’s symptoms with her own waning symptoms in middle age. Her life story provides a startling look at how those with the syndrome experience the world. (Kirkus Reviews)

In this exciting new book on Asperger Syndrome, a mother who also holds a doctoral degree in autism spectrum disorders, relates the difficulties of her son with AS. A mother’s account is rounded out by the perspectives of Brent, her adult son with AS, her husband and family members and others who have Asperger Syndrome.

An attempt to explain the biological and physiological facets of human personality. A psychological study on how to identify shadow syndromes (mild forms of serious mental disorders) and their implications, offering advice on therapeutic options.

In this elegant and thought-provoking memoir, the author traces her personal growth from undiagnosed autism to the moment when, as a young woman, she entered the Seattle Zoo and immediately became fascinated with the gorillas.

Reviewed by the President of the Autism Society of Wisconsin, “Thomas A. McKean has successfully provided the reader with a new wealth of insight into areas known only to those individuals with autism. Parents, hungry for greater understanding of their children with autism, will ravenously devour this wonderful autobiography…..the book is divided into two sections. Section One consists of six chapters about his life with autism. Original poetry is sprinkled throughout, beginning with “Soon Will Come The Light,” which introduces the dominant book themes of fear, loneliness, love, and escape.

Corporate life in early 21^st-century America is even more ruthless than it was at the turn of the millenium. Lou Arrendale, well compensated for his remarkable pattern-recognition skills, enjoys his job and expects never to lose it. But he has a new boss, a man who thinks Lou and the others in his building are a liability. Lou and his coworkers are autistic. And the new boss is going to fire Lou and all his coworkers– unless they agree to undergo an experimental new procedure to “cure” them.
–from Amazon.com review quoting Cynthia Ward

This is a rich and positive description of how it feels to be autistic and how friends, family and the professionals that work with autistic people can be more sensitive to their needs. Jasmine Lee O’Neill, autistic herself, perceives the creativity, imagination and keenly-felt sensory world of the autistic person as gifts. She argues that ‘normalizing’ autistic people – pushing them into behaving in a way that is alien to their true natures – is not just ineffective but wrong. In this vivid and enjoyable book, she challenges the reader to accept their difference and to celebrate their uniqueness.

Park shows why a “disproportionate share of the science seen by the public is flawed” (because shaky science is more likely to skip past peer review and head straight for the media,) and he gives a good tour of recent highlights in Voodoo. He has a rare ability to poke holes compassionately, without excoriating those taken in by their fondest wishes.

An encouraging, educational, and often humorous guide for teens and adults living with Asperger’s Syndrome or high-functioning autism. Jerry, a man with autism, gives advice on dating, money, traveling independently and more! This clever book will help others live fuller, more independent lives. Forward by Ron Bass, Academy Award Winner for Rain Man.