Autism Books

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO ASPERGER SYNDROME - by Tony Attwood. THis is a book I'd recommend to all parents and carers and it is also relevant to HFA too. I have used it as a sort of reference book to keep going back to when I want to learn more about a certain topic or issue I am having with one of the children.

PLAYING LAUGHING AND LEARNING WITH CHILDREN ON THE AUTISTIC SPECTRUM - by Julia Moore This is fantastic to help develop the earliest interaction and play skills from children who are profoundly autistic right up to the other end of the spectrum...it teaches things like shared attention and breaks each stage down into tiny steps...excellent book to begin to have fun with your child. THE

OUT-OF-SYNC-CHILD - by Carol Stock Kranowitz This is for children with sensory issues. It describes the areas of difficulties in all the senses and also has checklists so you can identify your childs needs. THe following book in the series is called THE OUT OF SYNC CHILD HAS FUN. This contains activites and ideas to play and develop sensory skills.

KIDS IN THE SYNDROME MIX - by Martin L Kutswcher with contributions from Tony Attwood. This book is a guide for parents, teachers and other proffessionals and covers ADHD, LD, Aspergers, Tourettes, Bipolar and more....Very good informative book and useful as a learning tool.

WHAT DID YOU SAY? WHAT DID YOU MEAN? - By Jude Welton This is a book to work on literal understanding of language and metaphores....it covers widly used 'phrases' that children with literal understanding need to be specifically taught...very kid friendly from young children up to teens....

MY SOCIAL STORIES BOOK - by Carol Gray and Abbie Leigh White. This gives ideas of social stories that can help work on specific social situations and help your child cope and learn new skills. It also fully details how to use and implement them.

THE INCREDIBLE 5 POINT SCALE - by Kari Dunn Brown and Mitzi Curtis. This is a specific ASD/Aspergers approach to dealing with anxiety and anger. It has been developed to work on and address specific strategies that are individual to each child to be able to learn how to self-monitor and stay in control of these emotions. I have used this with my daughter who has Aspergers and an anxiety disorder and I can say that it really does work!

EXPLORING FEELINGS Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to manage anxiety - By Dr Tony Attwood. I have used this book with my children and it has photocopyable worksheets to work from developing a sense of self and self control....It has been reviewed and supported by many other proffessionals as a really effective apprach to help our children manage their anxietys.

ASPERGERS WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME - By Catherine Faherty (ALSO appropriate for igh Functioning Autism/ASD) This book contains photocopyable worksheets and teaching ideas for use at home and school that develop sense of self awareness and life lessons. It has been very helpful in raising my daughters self esteem and calming her anxiety too.

MORE THAN WORDS - by Fern Sussman This is tohelp parents promote communication and social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder. This covers the early stages of social and communication skills.

UNDERSTANDING ADHD - by Dr Christopher Green This book does exactly what it says!! It is really easy to read, to use as a reference book and has taught me a lot about ADHD.

 I'll dig around and add the others I have got soon...I was going to rate them, but to be honest, they have all been really useful in different ways :0) Claire - Community Champion

Claire Sainsbury - 'Martian in the Playground' - highly recommended.

Jim Sinclair essays (online somewhere) - not for the faint hearted!

From what I have seen of Luke Jackson - I like him - yet his book is on my to read list.

Generally speaking - stuff by people on the spectrum! When I come across others, I will let you know. Unfortunately, a lot of what I read is academic research (a good deal of which is quite nauseating). Yet - there are some really good researchers at the Uni of Birmingham and have heard some good things about Sheffield Hallam (+ keep me posted Claire!). It is also good to see Oxford getting involved + others.

I quite like the TEACCH approach (Schopler / Mesibov) + elements of other bits. I think that there is a long way to go though + nothing will ever explain 'it' completely. Often one can find interesting ideas from unlikely places - this is something I have perfected! I link odd ideas and concepts to things they wouldn't normally be linked to (as I struggle to conform to standardised boundaries!). I was helping my friend the other day doing a child nursing course and came across a theory concerning group working and group boundaries through a visual medium. My brother and I had basically come up with something looking very similar to visually describe my PhD project - next thing I know I am building a theoretical picture out of links that are appearing + of course modifying and adding stuff they had missed out on...

The point is, nobody has all the answers - perhaps debating and talking to many voices (such as a forum like this) is actually more appropriate. Children 'don't come with a manual' - well, autistic ones certainly don't!

Damian

Hi

This recommended book was posted on my fb wall today. I havent read so cant comment on it, but as Temple Grandin co-authored it I thought it would be a safe bet.

"Beyond the Wall: Personal Experiences with Autism and Asperger Syndrome,"
Stephen Shore & Temple Grandin.

Josie - Community Champion

We also have these two pages which list books:

In relation to challenging behaviour: http://www.talkaboutautism.org.uk/help/challenging-behaviour/further-reading

In relation to transitions: http://www.talkaboutautism.org.uk/support/transition/further-reading

Fantastic, thank you for these!