Spectrum Disorder

In this collection of beautiful and raw essays, Amy S. F. Lutz writes openly about her experience - the positive and the negative - as a mother of a now 21-year-old son with severe autism. Lutz's human emotion drives through each moment and challenges commonly held ideas that define autism either as a disease or as neurodiversity.

Welcome to My Life shares the 14-year journey of a true warrior mom advocating for her nonverbal, severely autistic son, from diagnosis through his teenage years. This brutally honest and heartwarming account details the daily struggles and often lack of social understanding that families face when raising a child who relies on parental assistance for every need.

From an early age, Jude knew he was different. Following an early childhood filled with quirky behaviors and marginalization, Jude was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. With the support of his parents, Jude navigated through school and university, albeit with difficulty. Jude’s life changed when he discovered he was going to be a Father. Coming to terms with becoming a parent and denying his Asperger’s diagnosis started to cause a rift between Jude and his infant child.

De senaste tjugo åren har kunskapen om autism exploderat. Nya teorier och metoder utvecklas dagligen. Men vad är autism egentligen? Och hur kan man lära sig att leva med att någon närstående fått diagnosen? Livet är ett pussel för alla, men för vissa kan det vara svårare att få bitarna att gå ihop. Och din uppgift som förälder är att visa hur pusslet ska läggas. Den här boken är till för dig som känner att du behöver lite hjälp på traven.

A Celebration of Everyone Who Fulfills Their Purpose Through Unexpected Challenges Until two years of age, Craig and Samantha’s son Connor was just like other kids—playful, verbal, and affectionate. Then everything changed. He stopped talking, displayed behavioral problems, and withdrew into...

Critically acclaimed author Cammie McGovern's powerful and heartwarming middle grade novel will appeal to readers who loved R. J. Palacio's Wonder, Holly Sloan's Counting by 7s, and Lynda Mullaly Hunt's Fish in a Tree. ""This brave story, told with wry humor, is inspirational,"" raved Ann M...

Nicole Hendrick Donovan, a mother of four, couldn’t have prepared for the events that led to her son’s removal from the public-school system. Behavioral spikes, depression, and anxiety were only symptoms of an underlying diagnosis that had gone untreated for years. On a sunny afternoon, Jack eloped from first grade, creating chaos and leaving a trail of injured staff in his wake. Within her memoir, Donovan describes the path to her son’s autism diagnosis and her journey to acceptance and unconditional love, not only for Jack, but also for herself.

Waiting for the Light Bulb is a true story that follows the life of a little girl over the course of 10 years. Told from a mother’s perspective, it begins with a pregnancy, high hopes and dreams for the future but as diagnoses are made the fear of the unknown is tangible. Follow a determined, gritty mother as she navigates the world with a daughter who has an incredibly unique subset of autism. Listen as she learns how to maneuver her way through medical mediocrity, broken public school systems, past stigmas and preconceived notions of what a special needs child is like.

Topics in the book include learning to read facial expressions and character intent, or understanding character responses which those on the autism spectrum may recognize in themselves. Star Trek fans will learn about how it feels to see the world from an autistic perspective and find new facets and ways to view the shows they love, while autistics, friends, loved ones, and parents of children on the autism spectrum will find new ways to better understand autism and spend enjoyable time together. Make it so.

Powerful and eye-opening, Seeing Ezra is an inspirational chronicle of a mother's struggle to protect her son from a system that seeks to compartmentalize and "fix" him, and of her journey toward accepting and valuing him for who he is - just as he is.

Tic Toc Autism Clock explains how autism may affect each of the child's senses and provides ideas for working through those sensitivity issues. The authors provide techniques parents can implement to teach the child through play, reading, language activities, social activities, and cooking. The listener will learn how to weave sensory interventions, communication strategies, behavioral techniques, and social skills into one cohesive 24/7 plan.

Clay Marzo has an almost preternatural gift with a surfboard. From his first moments underwater (he learned to swim at two months old) to his first ventures atop his father's surfboard as a toddler, it was obvious that Marzo's single-minded focus on all things surfing was unique. But not until late in his teens, when this surfing phenom was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, did the deeper reasons for his obsession - and his astonishing gift for surfing - become clear

Fourteen-year-old Benny Neusner wants only one thing more than a dog: for his neglectful mother to be proud of him. He hasn't given up on impressing his mother, but a dog is out of the question. His father and stepmother will never permit it. They don't understand how lonely he is. He is not a brain like the other kids in his therapeutic school, and nothing he's tried has ever worked out for him. Benny meets Bess Rutledge, a 70-year-old woman who has dreamed of winning the Westminster Dog Show all her life.

Given the great deal of attention paid to music and autism, it is surprising to discover that autistic people have rarely been asked to account for how they themselves make and experience music or why it matters to them that they do. In Speaking for Ourselves, renowned ethnomusicologist Michael Bakan does just that, engaging in deep conversations - some spanning the course of years - with 10 fascinating and very different individuals who share two basic things in common: an autism spectrum diagnosis and a life in which music plays a central part.

Having menopausal symptoms as an autistic person can feel isolating and confusing. You might be wondering why you are feeling so lost or why your experience doesn't seem anything like other people's. Here to provide you with clarity are Dr. Rachel Moseley, who is autistic herself, and Professor...

Henry Markram is the Elon Musk of neuroscience, the man behind the billion-dollar Blue Brain Project to build a supercomputer model of the brain. He has set the goal of decoding all disturbances of the mind within a generation. This quest is personal for him. The driving force behind his grand ambition has been his son Kai, who has autism. Raising Kai made Henry Markram question all that he thought he knew about neuroscience, and then inspired his groundbreaking research that would upend the conventional wisdom about autism, expressed in his now-famous theory of Intense World Syndrome.

Each year, 1 in every 100 children in America are diagnosed with autism. Although autism has reached epidemic proportions, it is far from understood. In What Is Autism? Chantal Sicile-Kira provides a clear, instructive explanation of autism spectrum disorders and what life is like for those on the spectrum. If you know someone with autism and would benefit from a quick, straightforward explanation of the condition, this book is the perfect resource. What Is Autism? explores in a simple question-answer format topics such as: What are the causes of autism? Can vaccines cause autism?

A young airman with Asperger's Syndrome, summarily discharged from military duty and plagued by serious mental health issues, becomes homeless and has frequent encounters with the law. Through his exploits, he inadvertently provides the inspiration for a popular TV show and becomes the hope of the poor and downtrodden in his hometown of Seattle.

Growing up, Mickey Rowe was told that he couldn’t enter the mainstream world. He was iced out by classmates and colleagues, infantilized by well-meaning theatre directors, barred from even earning a minimum wage. Why? Because he is autistic. Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor’s Journey to Broadway’s Biggest Stage is Mickey Rowe’s inspiring story. As an autistic and legally blind person, it was always made clear to Mickey the many things he was apparently incapable of doing.

This often heartbreaking account by Carol, whose son, Paul, was born with many difficulties, including autism, is told with the honesty and sincerity necessary to portray the conflicting emotions faced by any family, and particularly a mother, in such circumstances. The overbearing feelings of guilt, failure and inadequacy have to be resolved to enable a happy life with her family.