Identity
By The Autistic Advocate
Identity
By The Autistic Advocate
A Perfectly Weird Guide to Being Perfectly You: Growing Up Autistic and Happy
Camilla Pang
£9.99 £9.49Understand neurodiversity and discover how scientific concepts can help you navigate everyday human interactions, and grow up to be your HAPPIEST YOU! As a child, Camilla loved patterns and putting things in order. She was obsessed with Stephen Hawking, and the only language she really understood was science. Diagnosed with autism aged 8, Camilla saw the world very differently. But with science as her sidekick, she was able to translate ideas she could understand, such as photosynthesis and algorithms, onto things she couldn't, such as dealing with emotions and finding your voice. In this unique and brilliant book, Camilla shares her scientific survival guide to growing up, helping neurodiverse young readers navigate the world around them, giving them the courage to grow up perfectly happy in who they are.
Narrating the Many Autisms: Identity, Agency, Mattering
UK) Stenning Anna (University of Worcester
£135.00Autism is a profoundly contested idea. The focus of this book is not what autism is or what autistic people are, but rather, it grapples with the central question: what does it take for autistic people to participate in a shared world as equals with other people? Drawing from her close reading of a range of texts and narratives, by autistic authors, filmmakers, bloggers, and academics, Anna Stenning highlights the creativity and imagination in these accounts and also considers the possibilities that emerge when the unexpected and novel aspects of experience are attended to and afforded their due space. Approaching these narrative accounts in the context of both the Anthropocene and neoliberalism, Stenning unpacks and reframes understandings about autism and identity, agency and mattering, across sections exploring autistic intelligibility, autistic sensibility, and community-oriented collaboration and care. By moving away from the non-autistic stories about autism that have, over time, dominated public conception of the autistic experience and relationships, as well as the cognitive and psychoanalytic paradigms that have reduced autism and autistic people to a homogeneous group, the book instead reveals the multiplicity of autistic subjectivities and their subsequent understandings of well-being and vulnerability. It calls on readers to listen to what autistic people have to say about the possibilities of resistance and solidarity against intersecting currents and eddies of power, which endanger all who challenge the neoliberal conception of Life. A stirring and meaningful departure from atomized accounts of neurological difference, Narrating the Many Autisms ponders big questions about its topic and finds clarity and meaning in the sense-making practices of autistic individuals and groups. It will appeal to scholarly readers across the fields of disability studies, the medical humanities, cultural studies, critical psychology, sociology, anthropology, and literature.
The Awesome Autistic Guide to Being Proud: Feeling Good About Who You Are
Yenn Purkis and Tanya Masterman
£14.99
The Awesome Autistic Guide to Other Humans: Relationships with Friends and Family
Yenn Purkis and Tanya Masterman
£14.99
The Awesome Autistic Guide to Feelings and Emotions: Finding Your Comfort Zone
Tanya Masterman and Yenn Purkis
£14.99
Girl Unmasked: The Sunday Times Bestseller: How Uncovering My Autism Saved My Life
Emily Katy
£18.99 £18.04
Learning Disability and Everyday Life
UK) Cockain Alex (Canterbury Christ Church University
£135.00Learning Disability and Everyday Life brings into conversation ideas from social theory with “thick” descriptions of the everyday life of a middle-aged man with learning disabilities and autism. This book is markedly ethnographic in its orientation to the gritty graininess of everyday life―eating, drinking, walking, cooking, talking, and so on―in, with, and alongside learning disability. However, preoccupation with, the “small” coexists with a gaze intent upon capturing a bigger picture, to the extent that the things constituting everyday life are deployed as prisms through and with which to critically reflect upon the wider worlds of dis/ability and everyday life. Such attention to the small and the big―the micro and the macro―allows this book to explore the ordinary and everyday ways meanings about normalcy and abnormalcy, ability and disability, are put together, enacted, practised, made (up)―in the sense of constituting and fabricating―and, crucially, accomplished through and between people in specific, and invariably contingent, sociocultural, discursive, and material conditions of possibility. This book will be of specific interest not only to students and scholars of disability but also to persons with lived experiences of disability. This book will also be of interest to students and scholars of anthropology and sociology.
Armchair Conversations on Love and Autism: Secrets of Happy Neurodiverse Couples
Eva A. Mendes
£16.99
The #ActuallyAutistic Guide to Building Independence: A Handbook for Teens, Young Adults, and Those Who Care About Them
Jennifer Brunton and Jenna Gensic
£15.99
The Guide to Good Mental Health on the Autism Spectrum
Jane Nugent, Emma Goodall, et al.
£16.99Filled with strategies and advice, this empowering guide presents practical ways to improve the mental wellbeing of people on the Autism Spectrum. This helpful guide focusses on the specific difficulties that can arise for people on the autism spectrum who may also experience a mental illness. The book includes information on common mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, as well as strategies for improving sleep patterns and mindfulness. Providing guidance on the benefits and drawbacks of therapy pets, medication, and psychotherapy, the authors offer balanced perspectives on treatment options and introduce self-help strategies tailored to meet your needs and improve your mental wellbeing. A number of short personal narratives from people on the autism spectrum and mental health issues illustrate the text. The book also includes a list of resources, books and organisations that can provide further support and inspiration.
Understanding and Facilitating the Achievement of Autistic Potential
Dr Emma Goodall
£25.00This book will enable parents and teachers to gain an understanding of the autistic spectrum and what it is like to be a child on the autistic spectrum. The easy to implement strategies will enable parents and teachers to offer effective opportunities to autistic spectrum children to ensure those children are able to reach their potential.
Women on the Spectrum: A Handbook for Life
Emma Goodall
£27.54Have you ever had someone tell you that your social skills aren't very good? What do they mean? Do you need practical tips for applying for jobs and attending interviews? Are you moving from home for the first time? What do you need to know to best equip yourself? This book is a unique handbook on life for autistic women, written by autistic women. Its primary purpose is to enable girls and women on the autism spectrum to learn from the authors' and others' mistakes most effectively! This book is structured in a helpful question and answer format that covers a large variety of topics asked by autistic women on all walks of life. With over 120 questions and using this practical format, readers are able to dip in and out, getting the information and answers they need, when they need it without having to read an entire chapter.
I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder: A Memoir
Sarah Kurchak
£14.99 £14.24An autistic writer’s memoir of the detrimental effects of pretending to be normal, and her impassioned call to redefine what is considered a successful life. Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn’t let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly, and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become “an autistic success story,” how the process almost ruined her life and how she is now trying to recover. Growing up undiagnosed in small-town Ontario in the eighties and nineties, Kurchak realized early that she was somehow different from her peers. She discovered an effective strategy to fend off bullying: she consciously altered nearly everything about herself―from her personality to her body language. She forced herself to wear the denim jeans that felt like being enclosed in a sandpaper iron maiden. Every day, she dragged herself through the door with an elevated pulse and a churning stomach, nearly crumbling under the effort of the performance. By the time she was finally diagnosed with autism at twenty-seven, she struggled with depression and anxiety largely caused by the same strategy she had mastered precisely. She came to wonder, were all those years of intensely pretending to be someone else really worth it? Tackling everything from autism parenting culture to love, sex, alcohol, obsessions and professional pillow fighting, Kurchak’s enlightening memoir challenges stereotypes and preconceptions about autism and considers what might really make the lives of autistic people healthier, happier and more fulfilling.
Autism in Adults
Luke Beardon
£10.99 £10.44If you've recently been diagnosed with ASD, or think you might be, or you are close to someone with ASD, one of the things you will like most about this book is the way in which it challenges the idea of autism as a 'disorder' or 'impairment'. Instead, Dr Luke Beardon will help you to reframe what you feel, and challenge what you know, about being on the spectrum. He explains how autism impacts on the individual, and what purpose a diagnosis might - or might not - serve. There is a lot of myth-busting, and dismantling of the stereotypes and clichés around ASD and areas like communication, social interaction and relationships. Practical tips for undiagnosed adults will help you navigate things like school, work, study, parenthood and even to understand what happens when autistic people break the law. Above all, this book is a celebration of what it means to be autistic - of the passion, honesty, humour, lack of ego, loyalty and trustworthiness that make you, or your loved one, such an amazing person.
I Think I Might Be Autistic: A Guide to Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis and Self-Discovery for Adults
Cynthia Kim
£9.20What if instead of being weird, shy, geeky or introverted, your brain is wired differently? For adults with undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is often an "aha!" moment--when you realize that ASD just might be the explanation for why you've always felt so different. "I Think I Might Be Autistic: A Guide to Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis and Self-Discovery for Adults" begins from that "aha!' moment, addressing the many questions that follow. What do the symptoms of ASD look like in adults? Is getting a diagnosis worth it? What does an assessment consist of and how can you prepare for it? Cynthia Kim shares the information, insights, tips, suggestions and resources she gathered as part of her own journey from "aha!" to finally being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in her forties. This concise guide also addresses important aspects of living with ASD as a late-diagnosed adult, including coping with the emotional impact of discovering that you're autistic and deciding who to share your diagnosis with and how.
Naming Adult Autism: Culture, Science, Identity
Dr. James McGrath
£35.00Naming Adult Autism is one of the first critiques of cultural and medical narratives of Autism to be authored by an adult diagnosed with this condition. Autism is a 'social disorder', defined by interactions and lifestyle. Yet, the expectations of normalcy against which Autism is defined have too rarely been questioned. This book demonstrates the value of the Humanities towards developing fuller understandings of Autistic adulthood, adapting theory from Adorno, Foucault and Butler. The chapters expose serious scientific limitations of medical assumptions that Autistic people are gifted at maths but indifferent to fiction. After interrogating such clichés in literature, cinema and television, James McGrath also explores more radical depictions of Autism via novels by Douglas Coupland, Margaret Atwood, Clare Morrall and Meg Wolitzer, plus poems by Les Murray and Joanne Limburg.
Pretending to be Normal: Living with Asperger's Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder) Expanded Edition
Liane Holliday Willey
£16.99Compelling and witty, Liane Holliday Willey's account of growing to adulthood as an undiagnosed 'Aspie' has been read by thousands of people on and off the autism spectrum since it was first published in 1999. Bringing her story up to date, including her diagnosis as an adult, and reflecting on the changes in attitude over 15 years, this expanded edition will continue to entertain (and inform) all those who would like to know a little more about how it feels to spend your life `pretending to be normal'.
Learning From Autistic Teachers: How to Be a Neurodiversity-Inclusive School
£25.99
In this strikingly honest collection, developed from a pioneering new research project, autistic teachers and other autistic school professionals share their stories of the challenges and successes of their careers. Contributors challenge assumptions and stereotypes whilst highlighting the unique strengths autistic staff can bring to schools when their own needs are accommodated. The book explores exclusion and identity, understanding and acceptance, intersectionality and facilitating inclusion. It also celebrates the positives that come with being an autistic teacher, such as relating to neurodivergent pupils and conveying passion and enthusiasm for a subject through intense interests, or demonstrating particular skills in school leadership. It examines how workplace set up can sometimes exclude autistic individuals and lead to skilled teachers and those in other education roles, including visiting professionals, leaving the profession, and sets out the accommodations that can prevent this from happening.
What I Want to Talk About: How Autistic Special Interests Shape a Life
Pete Wharmby
£15.99'This book isn't a memoir. It is a love letter to the phenomenon of autistic hyperfixation.' In What I Want to Talk About popular autism advocate Pete Wharmby takes readers on a journey through his special interests, illuminating the challenges of autistic experience along the way. Funny, revealing, celebratory and powerful in equal measure, this is a book that will resonate with many, and which should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand autism with more accuracy and empathy.
Understanding Autistic Relationships Across the Lifespan: Family, Friends, Lovers and Others
Felicity Sedgewick and Sarah Douglas
£31.99Understanding Autistic Relationship Across the Lifespan is an accessible overview of autistic relationships from the early years through to old age. This much-needed book combines the latest research findings with first-hand accounts to offer insight into the relationships of autistic people and how they differ to those of non-autistic people in a range of ways. Felicity Sedgewick and Sarah Douglas delve into life's stages and their challenges, revealing how navigating relationships can lead to misunderstandings, rejection, and trauma – but also to genuine connection, support, and joy. Illustrated throughout with extracts from interviews, and with extended narratives from Sarah, it explores key topics including relationships in the early years, childhood friendships, teenage friendships and romance, adult romantic and sexual relationships, LGBTQ+ relationships, finding community, family relationships, and issues in the later stages of life. The authors explore a wide range of emotions and life situations, examining the social world of autistic people and the strategies they use to navigate it. Understanding Autistic Relationship Across the Lifespan offers practical recommendations for both autistic and non-autistic people on how to have the healthiest and most satisfying relationships possible. It is essential reading for all those working with autistic people and studying autism, as well as autistic individuals and those close to them.
Neurodiversity Studies: A New Critical Paradigm
£39.99
Building on work in feminist studies, queer studies and critical race theory, this volume challenges the universality of propositions about human nature, by questioning the boundaries between predominant neurotypes and ‘others’, including dyslexics, autistics and ADHDers. This is the first work of its kind to bring cutting-edge research across disciplines to the concept of neurodiversity. It offers in-depth explorations of the themes of cure/prevention/eugenics; neurodivergent wellbeing; cross-neurotype communication; neurodiversity at work; and challenging brain-bound cognition. It analyses the role of neuro-normativity in theorising agency, and a proposal for a new alliance between the Hearing Voices Movement and neurodiversity. In doing so, we contribute to a cultural imperative to redefine what it means to be human. To this end, we propose a new field of enquiry that finds ways to support the inclusion of neurodivergent perspectives in knowledge production, and which questions the theoretical and mythological assumptions that produce the idea of the neurotypical. Working at the crossroads between sociology, critical psychology, medical humanities, critical disability studies, and critical autism studies, and sharing theoretical ground with critical race studies and critical queer studies, the proposed new field – neurodiversity studies – will be of interest to people working in all these areas. Chapter 7 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
So, I'm Autistic: An Introduction to Autism for Young Adults and Late Teens
Sarah O'brien
£14.99'There isn't a secret manual outlining exactly how to get through your teens and young adulthood as an autistic individual, but this book provides a script for how to do what adulthood will make you do anyway, in a way that is most accessible for you". You've just received an autism diagnosis, so why do you still feel so lost when it comes to what autism actually means for you? Written by autistic advocate Sarah O'Brien, this book gives a much-needed introduction into what autism is and removes the myths, stereotypes and stigma that surround it. Sarah provides insights into what to do after diagnosis and how to approach and navigate the process of informing those in your life, from your family and friends to your teachers or manager at work. Utilising her own experience of feeling lost after diagnosis and navigating all of the 'firsts' of adolescence and young adulthood Sarah provides an honest and friendly voice to guide you through it all. Intelligent and clearly-written, this is the fact-led and information-rich resource that will answer your questions about autism, introduce you to your new community and set you up to thrive as an autistic adult.
Shouting At Leaves
Jennifer Msumba
£15.99 £15.19I have lived through some horrible experiences, all in the name of treatment. But there was one thing I never let those people steal from me, and that was my spirit. Shouting At Leaves takes the reader on the journey of its autistic writer from toddlerhood to adulthood. With humor and grace, this book walks you through the mind and experiences of Jennifer as she navigates the world of family, friendships and school life. It places you with her as she is confined in the mental health system, including the infamous Judge Rotenberg Center, and you will cheer her on as she not only survives but takes on a new life of freedom and joy in the end. She shares stories, tips, and strategies to equip you to be your own champion, and to build around you people who are loyal and true.
The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Autism Studies
£200.00
This handbook provides an authoritative and up-to-date overview of Critical Autism Studies and explores the different kinds of knowledges and their articulations, similarities, and differences across cultural contexts and key tensions within this subdiscipline. Critical Autism Studies is a developing area occupying an exciting space of development within learning and teaching in higher education. It has a strong trajectory within the autistic academic and advocate community in resistance and response to the persistence of autism retaining an identity as a genetic disorder of the brain. Divided into four parts • Conceptualising autism • Autistic identity • Community and culture • Practice and comprising 24 newly commissioned chapters written by academics and activists, it explores areas of education, Critical Race Theory, domestic violence and abuse, sexuality, biopolitics, health, and social care practices. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, education, health, social care, and political science.
Autistic Intelligence: Interaction, Individuality, and the Challenges of Diagnosis
Jason Turowetz and Douglas W. Maynard
£24.00An examination of diagnostic processes that questions how we can better understand autism as a category and the unique forms of intelligence it glosses. As autism has grown in prevalence, so too have our attempts to make sense of it. From placing unfounded blame on vaccines to seeking a genetic cause, Americans have struggled to understand what autism is and where it comes from. Amidst these efforts, however, a key aspect of autism has been largely overlooked: the diagnostic process itself. That process is the central focus of Autistic Intelligence. The authors ask us to question the norms by which we measure autistic behavior, to probe how that behavior can be considered sensible rather than disordered, and to explore how we can better appreciate the individuality of those who receive the diagnosis. Drawing on hundreds of hours of video recordings and ethnographic observations at a clinic where professionals evaluated children for autism, the authors’ analysis of interactions among clinicians, parents, and children demystifies the categories, tools, and practices involved in the diagnostic process. Autistic Intelligence shows that autism is not a stable category; it is the outcome of complex interactional processes involving professionals, children, families, and facets of the social and clinical environments they inhabit. The authors suggest that diagnosis, in addition to carefully classifying children, also can highlight or include unique and particular contributions those with autism potentially can make to the world around us.
Approaching Autistic Adulthood: The Road Less Travelled
Grace Liu
£12.99Getting through autistic adulthood takes guts. How do you start? From managing autistic burnout to surviving work to dealing with people ‘neurotypical-splaining’ autism, this book is packed with informal advice, entertaining anecdotes, and shrewd observations about life as an autistic adult. May it become a valuable guide for autistic people and neurotypical allies alike!
Safeguarding Autistic Girls: Strategies for Professionals
Carly Jones
£21.99This honest, to-the-point guide illuminates the experience of young Autistic girls and explores the situations they can easily fall victim to. Powerful case studies show how easily misunderstandings can arise for Autistic girls and help the reader to identify common patterns of abuse. Providing professionals with access to safeguarding strategies that are straightforward to implement and highly effective, this is essential reading for everyone who wants to better understand the challenges faced by this vulnerable group, and ensure they have access to the same opportunities to secure a good education and build safe and happy relationships as their peers.
Drama Queen: One Autistic Woman and a Life of Unhelpful Labels
SARA GIBBS
£12.99 £12.34'It has taken me several years of exploration, but I am at a place now where I see autism as neither an affliction nor a superpower. It's just the blueprint for who I am. There is no cure, but that's absolutely fine by me. To cure me of my autism would be to cure me of myself.' During the first thirty years of her life, comedy script writer Sara Gibbs had been labelled a lot of things - a cry baby, a scaredy cat, a spoiled brat, a weirdo, a show off - but more than anything else, she'd been called a Drama Queen. No one understood her behaviour, her meltdowns or her intense emotions. She felt like everyone else knew a social secret that she hadn't been let in on; as if life was a party she hadn't been invited to. Why was everything so damn hard? Little did Sara know that, at the age of thirty, she would be given one more label that would change her life's trajectory forever. That one day, sitting next to her husband in a clinical psychologist's office, she would learn that she had never been a drama queen, or a weirdo, or a cry baby, but she had always been autistic. Drama Queen is both a tour inside one autistic brain and a declaration that a diagnosis on the spectrum, with the right support, accommodations and understanding, doesn't have to be a barrier to life full of love, laughter and success. It is the story of one woman trying to fit into a world that has often tried to reject her and, most importantly, it's about a life of labels, and the joy of ripping them off one by one.
Looking After Your Autistic Self: A Personalised Self-Care Approach to Managing Your Sensory and Emotional Well-Being
Niamh Garvey
£16.99'I no longer try to mask my autism; I now work to support my autism' It is a myth that autistic children grow into 'less autistic' adults. In fact, many autistic adults feel more overwhelmed as they age as the stresses of social demands such as relationships, parenting, or the work environment increase. Niamh Garvey offers tips and tricks designed to reduce sensory and emotional stress and look after your autistic self. From understanding what's happening when the stress response kicks in to using the 'detective habit' to spot your individual strengths and triggers. What's more, every element of this book can be personalised to you. Featuring strategies including 'quick calm plans' for managing triggers and lived-experience advice on understanding emotional regulation, coping with sensory overload and how to look after your senses during intimacy, this guide is here to ensure that you don't just survive adulthood, you thrive in it.
Can't Not Won't: A Story About A Child Who Couldn't Go To School
ELIZA FRICKER
£14.99Eliza Fricker gets it. Her compelling, hard-hitting and irreverently humorous illustrations follow a family through the early days of school avoidance, the process of accessing support and the challenges of coping in the meantime. Can't Not Won't illuminates the absurdity and frustrations that often arise when dealing with health, social and educational systems, and will help any parent in the same boat feel seen. This guide acts as a way to communicate these difficult circumstances with others. Wonderfully relatable, the book also includes written guidance for parents and professionals on what works best when it comes to managing school avoidance.
A Different Way to Learn: Neurodiversity and Self-Directed Education
Naomi Fisher
£16.99'If you are a parent worrying whether self-directed education will work for your child, because you have been told that they have special needs which can only be met in the school system - think again' Neurodivergent children experience and interact with the world differently to many of their peers. Standard educational systems often fail to adapt to their unique strengths and ways of learning. School, and even the act of learning, can become a source of great anxiety and trauma. Self-directed education offers an alternative to traditional schools that can help neurodivergent children develop at their own pace and thrive. Blending theory, practical advice and lived experience, clinical psychologist Naomi Fisher introduces the world of self-directed learning and tailoring the learning environment to your child. This comprehensive overview of self-directed learning is packed with ideas on how to implement it at home and includes interviews from parents of neurodivergent children on how you can make learning differently work for you and your child
What Works for Autistic Adults
Luke Beardon
£12.99 £12.34Imagine a world where an autistic person is included, engaged and cherished for how they are; a world which changes for autistic people, rather than changing the person. What Works for Autistic Adults brings the conversation about inclusivity into the forefront and turns it on its head. Instead of modifying the autistic individual and making exceptions or special circumstances, Luke shows how the world can, should and must change to accommodate your needs or those of the autistic person you love, live or work with. He identifies the aspects that impact on life most - partners, friends, work or college, and environment - and outlines the steps that can and should be taken by everyone involved to create an autism-friendly landscape and improve outcomes all round. Covering every setting, from social situations to office or other professional environments, and in all circumstances, Luke's book shows how no-one should have to struggle to exist within the parameters of a world they don't understand. What Works for Autistic Adults will give you the dialogue, tools and starting points to involve every loved one, family member or colleague as advocates for a world where you, or any other autistic adult, can truly flourish.
Avoiding Anxiety in Autistic Adults: A Guide for Autistic Wellbeing
Luke Beardon
£10.99 £10.44As seen on the BBC documentary, Inside Our Autistic Minds, with Chris Packham 'A MUST-READ' Kieran Rose, The Autistic Advocate One of the biggest challenges if you are an autistic adult (or suspect you might be) is navigating the situations which to the predominantly neurotypical population might appear completely benign but which cause you huge stress, anxiety and worry. At work, at university, in social situations, in friendships, relationships, in shops, in unfamiliar environments - there are a wealth of things that can make you feel overwhelmed if the world is full of things that you feel nobody else notices but which cause you huge distress. Dr Luke Beardon has put together an optimistic, upbeat and readable guide that will be essential reading not just for any autistic adult, but for anyone who loves, lives with or works with an autistic person. Emphasising that autism is not behaviour, but at the same time acknowledging that there are risks of increased anxiety specific to autism, this practical book gives clear strategies that the autistic person can adopt to minimise their anxiety and live comfortably in a world full of what may seem to be noise and chaos. At the same time, Avoiding Anxiety in Autistic Adults this book gives clear guidelines and mission statements to those who live or work with autistic people that they, too, can implement to accommodate needs that are different to their own, taking a radical new step towards a genuinely inclusive world in which autistic people don't just survive, but in which they thrive.
Autism in Childhood: For parents and carers of the newly diagnosed
Luke Beardon
£12.99 £12.34As seen on the BBC documentary, Inside Our Autistic Minds, with Chris Packham "If every parent receiving a diagnosis of autism for their child could read this book, it would avoid so much misunderstanding and unhappiness." - Dr Clare Lawrence A diagnosis - or a suspected diagnosis - of autism in a child can be overwhelming for a parent, especially if you know nothing, or very little, about either of them. Dr Luke Beardon is a well-known expert in the field, and this book is an accessible, easy-to-read introduction for those encountering autism for the first time. Gently and honestly, it guides you through the issues you might encounter, busting the myths around autism, and explaining what the diagnosis means for your child, for you, and for your wider family. It looks at sensory profiles, helps you handle your child's anxiety, tackles education, and answers a variety of frequently asked questions. Other topics covered by this sensitive and empowering book include how to have conversations with your child (the 'autistic voice'), how to manage your child's education and - importantly - the undeniable strengths of autism. As an introduction to - and a celebration of - the intriguing, beguiling, frustrating and remarkable world of autism, this book will help you understand your child's unique value and importance in the world.
What Works for Autistic Children
Luke Beardon
£12.99 £12.34Imagine a world where your autistic child is included, engaged and cherished for how they are; a world which changes for autistic children, rather than changing the child. What Works for Autistic Children brings the conversation about inclusivity into the forefront and turns it on its head. Instead of modifying the autistic child and making exceptions or special circumstances, Luke shows you, the parent, how the world can, should and must change to accommodate your child. He identifies the aspects that impact on your child's life most - the family, their school, their friends, their environment - and outlines the steps that can and should be taken by everyone involved to improve their outcome and create an autism-friendly landscape. From early communication, through pre-school, primary school, secondary school - on holidays, school trips and with friends - your child should not have to struggle to exist within the parameters of a world they don't understand. What Works for Autistic Children will give you the dialogue, tools and starting points to involve every professional and family member as advocates for a world where your child flourishes.
Sincerely, Your Autistic Child: What People on the Autism Spectrum Wish Their Parents Knew About Growing Up, Acceptance, and Ide
Emily Paige Ballou
£15.99 £15.19A rare and diverse collection of autistic voices that highlights to parents the unique needs of girls and nonbinary people who are growing up with autism. Most resources available for parents come out of the medical model of disability--from psychologists, educators, parents, and doctors--offering parents a narrow and technical approach to autism. Furthermore, it is widely believed that many autistic girls and women are underdiagnosed, which has further limited the information available regarding the unique needs of girls and nonbinary people with autism. Sincerely, Your Autistic Child represents an authentic resource for parents written by people who understand this experience most, autistic people themselves. From childhood and education to gender identity and sexuality, this anthology of autistic contributors tackles the everyday challenges of growing up while honestly addressing the emotional needs, sensitivity, and vibrancy of 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. Sincerely, Your Autistic Child 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.
Autistic Masking: Understanding identity management and the role of stigma
Amy Pearson and Kieran Rose
£34.44Masking is a form of identity management involving consciously or unconsciously suppressing aspects of identity and action. Often seen in socially marginalised groups, it is found to contribute towards poorer outcomes for autistic people, and is related to higher prevalence of suicidality, exhaustion and burnout, and mental health difficulties. Autistic Masking offers a holistic understanding of the most up-to-date evidence in this field, with the aim of developing solid knowledge and practice in health, education and society. Written to be accessible to everyday readers with an interest in autism as well as academics and professionals, the book deconstructs the predominant misconception that masking is purely a social strategy to ‘blend in’ with neurotypical (non-autistic) people. The authors consider the social context that facilitates impression management, including an individual’s response to stigma or trauma, and take an intersectional approach to exploring how autistic identity may interact with other aspects of selfhood.
Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You
Jenara Nerenberg
£12.99 £12.34A paradigm-shifting study of neurodivergent women—those with ADHD, autism, synesthesia, high sensitivity, and sensory processing disorder—exploring why these traits are overlooked in women and how society benefits from allowing their unique strengths to flourish. As a successful Harvard and Berkeley-educated writer, entrepreneur, and devoted mother, Jenara Nerenberg was shocked to discover that her “symptoms”--only ever labeled as anxiety-- were considered autistic and ADHD. Being a journalist, she dove into the research and uncovered neurodiversity—a framework that moves away from pathologizing “abnormal” versus “normal” brains and instead recognizes the vast diversity of our mental makeups. When it comes to women, sensory processing differences are often overlooked, masked, or mistaken for something else entirely. Between a flawed system that focuses on diagnosing younger, male populations, and the fact that girls are conditioned from a young age to blend in and conform to gender expectations, women often don’t learn about their neurological differences until they are adults, if at all. As a result, potentially millions live with undiagnosed or misdiagnosed neurodivergences, and the misidentification leads to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and shame. Meanwhile, we all miss out on the gifts their neurodivergent minds have to offer. Divergent Mind is a long-overdue, much-needed answer for women who have a deep sense that they are “different.” Sharing real stories from women with high sensitivity, ADHD, autism, misophonia, dyslexia, SPD and more, Nerenberg explores how these brain variances present differently in women and dispels widely-held misconceptions (for example, it’s not that autistic people lack sensitivity and empathy, they have an overwhelming excess of it). Nerenberg also offers us a path forward, describing practical changes in how we communicate, how we design our surroundings, and how we can better support divergent minds. When we allow our wide variety of brain makeups to flourish, we create a better tomorrow for us all.
Camouflage: The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women
Sarah Bargiela and Sophie Standing
£14.99Autism in women and girls is still not widely understood, and is often misrepresented or even overlooked. This graphic novel offers an engaging and accessible insight into the lives and minds of autistic women, using real-life case studies. The charming illustrations lead readers on a visual journey of how women on the spectrum experience everyday life, from metaphors and masking in social situations, to friendships and relationships and the role of special interests. Fun, sensitive and informative, this is a fantastic resource for anyone who wishes to understand how gender affects autism, and how to create safer supportive and more accessible environments for women on the spectrum.
Supporting Transgender Autistic Youth and Adults: A Guide for Professionals and Families
Finn V. Gratton
£25.99Providing advice on how professionals working with autistic trans youth and adults can tailor their practice to best serve their clients and how parents can support their trans autistic children, this book increases awareness of the large overlap between trans identities and autism. By including chapters on gender diversity basics, neuroqueer trauma and how to support neuroqueer individuals, this book sets out strategies for creating more effective support that takes into account the unique experiences of trans people on the spectrum. Written by a therapist who identifies as neuroqueer, this book is the perfect companion for professionals who want to increase their knowledge of the experiences and needs of their trans autistic clients.
Trans and Autistic: Stories from Life at the Intersection
Bridget Liang and Noah Adams
£17.99This ground-breaking book foregrounds the voices of autistic trans people as they speak candidly about how their autism and gender identity intersects and the impact this has on their life. Drawing upon a wealth of interviews with transgender people on the autism spectrum, the book explores experiences of coming out, with self-discovery, healthcare, family, work, religion and community support, to help dispel common misunderstandings around gender identity and autism, whilst allowing autistic trans people to see their own neurodiverse experiences reflected in these interviews. An incisive introduction clearly sets out up-to-date research and thinking, before each chapter draws together key findings from the interviews, along with advice and support for those providing support to autistic trans individuals. Both accessible and authoritative, Trans and Autistic is an essential publication for autistic trans people, their families, and professionals wanting to understand and support their clients better.
Spectrum Women: Walking to the Beat of Autism
£17.99
Barb Cook and 14 other autistic women describe life from a female autistic perspective, and present empowering, helpful and supportive insights from their personal experience for fellow autistic women. Michelle Garnett’s comments validate and expand the experiences described from a clinician’s perspective, and provide extensive recommendations.
Gender Identity, Sexuality and Autism: Voices from Across the Spectrum
Meredith R. Maroney and Eva A. Mendes
£20.99Bringing together a collection of narratives from those who are on the autism spectrum whilst also identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and/or asexual (LGBTQIA), this book explores the intersection of the two spectrums as well as the diverse experiences that come with it. By providing knowledge and advice based on in-depth research and personal accounts, the narratives will be immensely valuable to teenagers, adults, partners and families. The authors round these stories with a discussion of themes across narratives, and implications for the issues discussed. In the final chapter, the authors reflect on commonly asked questions from a clinical perspective, bringing in relevant research, as well as sharing best-practice tips and considerations that may be helpful for LGBTQIA and ASD teenagers and adults. These may also be used by family members and clinicians when counselling teenagers and adults on the dual spectrum. With each chapter structured around LGBTQIA and autism spectrum identities, Gender Identity, Sexuality and Autism highlights the fluidity of gender identity, sexual orientation and neurodiversity and provides a space for people to share their individual experiences.
The Passionate Mind: How People with Autism Learn
Wendy Lawson and Lisa Simone
£19.99In her new book, Wendy Lawson examines traditional theories about the autism spectrum (AS) and reveals their gaps and shortcomings. Showing that a completely different way of thinking about AS is needed, she sets forward the theory of Single Attention and Associated Cognition in Autism (SAACA), an approach that explains autism in terms of the unique learning style of AS individuals. The SAACA approach suggests that whereas neurotypical people can easily shift their attention from one task to another, those on the autism spectrum tend to use just one sense at a time, leading to a deep, intense attention. From the perspective of this new approach, Wendy describes practical outcomes for individuals, families, and places of education and employment, and shows that when the unique learning style of AS is understood, valued, and accommodated, AS individuals can be empowered to achieve their fullest potential. This is a fascinating read for anyone with a personal or professional interest in the autism spectrum, including clinical practitioners, educators, researchers, individuals on the spectrum and their families, teachers, occupational therapists, and other professionals.
Working with Autistic Transgender and Non-Binary People: Research, Practice and Experience
£21.99
Setting out advice, research and personal reflections to inform professionals' daily practice and overall understanding of the lives and experiences of autistic transgender and non-binary people, this edited volume is an invaluable resource for anyone who seeks to engage more with autistic transgender, non-binary or gender-variant people. Aiming to contextualise the overlap of autism and gender variance, this book features chapters by leading authorities such as Wenn Lawson, Damian Milton, Isabelle Hénault, Reubs Walsh, Lydia X. Z. Brown, and Shain Neumeier as well as other contributors from around the world. The collection is structured in three sections; the first provides interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches on autism and gender as well as the experiences of transgender and non-binary autistic people; the second features professionals discussing their work, the challenges they face and the solutions they find helpful; and the final section presents thoughts and perspectives from trans and non-binary autistic people on various aspects of their experiences, focusing on information that professionals will need to consider and discuss with the people they support. Combining rich and nuanced accounts of the lives of autistic trans people, practical guidance and information as well as the latest academic research about autistic transgender and non-binary individuals, this unique collection is essential reading for any professional wanting to develop their daily practice.
Spectrums: Autistic Transgender People in Their Own Words
£16.99
Written by autistic trans people from around the world, this vital and intimate collection of personal essays reveals the struggles and joys of living at the intersection of neurodivergence and gender diversity. Weaving memories, poems and first-person narratives together, these stories showcase experiences of coming out, college and university life, accessing healthcare, physical transition, friendships and relationships, sexuality, pregnancy, parenting, and late life self-discovery, to reveal a rich and varied tapestry of life lived on the spectrums. With humour and personal insight, this anthology is essential reading for autistic trans people, and the professionals supporting them, as well as anyone interested in the nuances of autism and gender identity.
Autism and Gender: From Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks
Jordynn Jack
£24.99The reasons behind the increase in autism diagnoses have become hotly contested in the media as well as within the medical, scholarly, and autistic communities. Jordynn Jack suggests the proliferating number of discussions point to autism as a rhetorical phenomenon that engenders attempts to persuade through arguments, appeals to emotions, and representational strategies. In Autism and Gender: From Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks, Jack focuses on the ways gender influences popular discussion and understanding of autism's causes and effects. She identifies gendered theories like the “refrigerator mother” theory, for example, which blames emotionally distant mothers for autism, and the “extreme male brain” theory, which links autism to the modes of systematic thinking found in male computer geeks. Jack's analysis reveals how people employ such highly gendered theories to craft rhetorical narratives around stock characters--fix-it dads, heroic mother warriors rescuing children from autism--that advocate for ends beyond the story itself while also allowing the storyteller to gain authority, understand the disorder, and take part in debates. Autism and Gender reveals the ways we build narratives around controversial topics while offering new insights into the ways rhetorical inquiry can and does contribute to conversations about gender and disability.
Letters To My Weird Sisters: On Autism and Feminism
Joanne Limburg
£10.99 £10.44It seemed to me that many of the moments when my autism had caused problems, or at least marked me out as different, were those moments when I had come up against some unspoken law about how a girl or a woman should be, and failed to meet it. An autism diagnosis in midlife enabled Joanne Limburg to finally make sense of why her emotional expression, social discomfort and presentation had always marked her as an outsider. Eager to discover other women who had been misunderstood in their time, she writes a series of wide-ranging letters to four 'weird sisters' from history, addressing topics including autistic parenting, social isolation, feminism, the movement for disability rights and the appalling punishments that have been meted out over centuries to those deemed to fall short of the norm. This heartfelt, deeply compassionate and wholly original work humanises women who have so often been dismissed for their differences, and will be celebrated by 'weird sisters' everywhere.
Uncomfortable Labels: My Life as a Gay Autistic Trans Woman
Laura Kate Dale
£15.99"So while the assumption when I was born was that I was or would grow up to be a neurotypical heterosexual boy, that whole idea didn't really pan out long term." In this candid, first-of-its-kind memoir, Laura Kate Dale recounts what life is like growing up as a gay trans woman on the autism spectrum. From struggling with sensory processing, managing socially demanding situations and learning social cues and feminine presentation, through to coming out as trans during an autistic meltdown, Laura draws on her personal experiences from life prior to transition and diagnosis, and moving on to the years of self-discovery, to give a unique insight into the nuances of sexuality, gender and autism, and how they intersect. Charting the ups and downs of being autistic and on the LGBT spectrum with searing honesty and humour, this is an empowering, life-affirming read for anyone who's felt they don't fit in.
The Autistic Trans Guide to Life
Yenn Purkis and Dr Wenn Lawson
£16.99This essential survival guide gives autistic trans and/or non-binary adults all the tools and strategies they need to live as their very best self. Blending personal accounts with evidence-based insights and up-to-date information, and written from a perspective of empowerment and self-acceptance, the book promotes pride, strength and authenticity, covering topics including self-advocacy, mental health and camouflaging and masking as well as key moments in life such as coming out or transitioning socially and/or physically. Written by two leading autistic trans activists, this book honestly charts what life is like as an autistic trans person and is vital, life-affirming reading.
The Gendered Brain: The new neuroscience that shatters the myth of the female brain
Gina Rippon
£10.99 £10.44Barbie or Lego? Reading maps or reading emotions? Do you have a female brain or a male brain? Or is that the wrong question? On a daily basis we face deeply ingrained beliefs that our sex determines our skills and preferences, from toys and colours to career choice and salaries. But what does this mean for our thoughts, decisions and behaviour? Using the latest cutting-edge neuroscience, Gina Rippon unpacks the stereotypes that bombard us from our earliest moments and shows how these messages mould our ideas of ourselves and even shape our brains. Rigorous, timely and liberating, The Gendered Brain has huge repercussions for women and men, for parents and children, and for how we identify ourselves.
Queerly Autistic: The Ultimate Guide For LGBTQIA+ Teens On The Spectrum
Erin Ekins
£14.99In this empowering and honest guide for LGBTQIA+ autistic teens, Erin Ekins gives you all the tools you need to figure out and explore your gender identity and sexuality. From coming out to friends and family, staying safe in relationships and practicing safe sex, through to self-care and coping with bullying, being out and about in the LGBTQIA+ community and undergoing gender transition, this book is filled with essential information, advice, support and resources to help you on your journey, and also works as a primer on all things LGBTQIA+ for non-autistic teens who are just figuring it all out. Written by an inspirational autistic queer woman, this is a must-read for every autistic teen wanting to live their very best queer life.