Plenty of recent bestsellers have described the hardships of autism, but those memoirs usually focus on the recovery of people who overcome some or all of the challenges of the disorder. And while that plot is uplifting, it's rare in real life, as few autistic children fully recover. The territory of severe autism of the child who is debilitated by the condition, who will never be cured has been largely neglected. One of Us: A Family's Life with Autism tells that story. In this book, Mark Osteen chronicles the experience of raising his son Cam, whose autism causes him aggression, insomnia, compulsions, and physical sickness. In a powerful, deeply personal narrative, Osteen recounts the struggles he and his wife endured in diagnosing, treating, and understanding Cam's disability, following the family through the years of medical difficulties and emotional wrangling. One of Us thrusts the reader into the life of a child who exists in his own world and describes the immense hardships faced by those who love and care for him. Leslie and Mark's marriage is sorely tested by their son's condition, and the book follows their progress from denial to acceptance while they fight to save their own relationship. By embracing the little victories of their life with Cam and by learning to love him as he is, Mark takes the reader down a road just as gratifying, and perhaps more moving, than one to recovery. One of Us is not a book about a child who overcomes autism. Instead, it s the story of a different but equally rare sort of victory the triumph of love over tremendous adversity.

In 1796, as smallpox ravaged Europe, Edward Jenner injected a child with a benign version of the disease, then exposed the child to the deadly virus itself. The boy proved resistant to smallpox, and Jenner's risky experiment produced the earliest vaccination. In this deftly written account, journalist Arthur Allen reveals a history of vaccination that is both illuminated with hope and shrouded by controversy�from Jenner's discovery to Pasteur's vaccines for rabies and cholera, to those that safeguarded the children of the twentieth century, and finally to the tumult currently surrounding vaccination. Faced with threats from anthrax to AIDS, we are a vulnerable population and can no longer depend on vaccines; numerous studies have linked childhood vaccination with various neurological disorders, and our pharmaceutical companies are more attracted to the profits of treatment than to the prevention of disease. With narrative grace and investigative journalism, Allen explores our shifting understanding of vaccination since its creation. 16 pages of illustrations.

Drawing on case studies and personal accounts from Attwood's extensive clinical experience, and from his correspondence with individuals with AS, this book is both authoritative and extremely accessible. Chapters examine: causes and indications of the syndrome; the diagnosis and its effect on the individual; theory of mind; the perception of emotions in self and others; social interaction, including friendships; long-term relationships; teasing, bullying and mental health issues; the effect of AS on language and cognitive abilities, sensory sensitivity, movement and co-ordination skills; and career development. There is also an invaluable frequently asked questions chapter and a section listing useful resources for anyone wishing to find further information on a particular aspect of AS, as well as literature and educational tools.

Tony Attwood's guide will assist parents and professionals with the identification, treatment and care of both children and adults with Asperger's Syndrome. The book provides a description and analysis of the unusual characteristics of the syndrome and practical strategies to reduce those that are most conspicuous or debilitating. Beginning with a chapter on diagnosis, including an assessment test, the book covers all aspects of the syndrome from language to social behaviour and motor clumsiness, concluding with a chapter based on the questions most frequently asked by those who come into contact with individuals with this syndrome. Covering the available literature in full, this guide brings together the most relevant and useful information on Asperger's Syndrome, incorporating case studies from the author's own practical experience as a Clinical Psychologist, with examples of, and numerous quotations from people with Asperger's Syndrome.

Often called high-functioning autism, Asperger Syndrome manifests itself in an array of characteristics, including high intelligence, obsessive behavior, and the inability to deal with everyday social situations. Although children (mostly male) with AS are often able to reel off arcane facts with ease, they have trouble processing and expressing emotions, don't get schoolyard jokes, and often spout socially unacceptable comments. Ostracized by classmates, shunted into special education classes, they are at high risk for depression and even suicide. In this breakthrough book, the authors, both mothers of boys with AS, give parents the help they need to deal with this devastating disorder. Covering every aspect of AS ù from diagnosis to treatment options, to preparing a child for life as an independent adult--they provide both practical guidance and welcome reassurances from families who have met the challenges of AS.

Autism has been defined by experts as a developmental disorder affecting social and communication skills as well as verbal and nonverbal communication. It is said to occur in as many as 2 to 6 in 1,000 individuals. This book challenges the prevailing, tragic narrative of impairment that so often characterizes discussions about autism. Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone seriously engages the perspectives of people with autism, including those who have been considered as the most severely disabled within the autism spectrum. The heart of the book consists of chapters by people with autism themselves, either in an interview format with the author or written by themselves. Each author communicates either by typing or by a combination of speech and typing. These chapters are framed by a substantive introduction and conclusion that contextualize the book, the methodology, and the analysis, and situate it within a critical disability studies framework. The volume allows a look into the rich and insightful perspectives of people who have heretofore been thought of as uninterested in the world.

Born with autism, Lucy could not understand much of what was said around her. Her own language came later from newspapers and books. She created stories and poems in her head from the words she had read. As an adult she still barely speaks. In her teens she started using a keyboard with someone touching her arm, but that was not a substitute for ordinary speech. Lucy's language had developed in a world of her own making in which she had never passed on information to someone else. Even today she does not answer questions in the same way as other people. Lucy's ambition was to write a book. She went to high school. She wrote letters and essays, learned how to explain herself and began to create characters in her stories. While writing she started to understand her own autism, and through that understanding she came to type on a computer with no physical support to complete her BA (Hons) in Literary Studies.

Glenn Doman, creator of the controversial Doman-Delacato patterning program, claims to cure brain damage if his demanding program of almost continuous exercises is strictly followed. Bratt religiously performed the exercises prescribed for her son, who has cerebral palsy, then had the courage to accept that his failure to be cured was the fault of neither mother or son. Bratt details her dreams for her son, the rigors of the program, its impact on her family, her disillusionment with the program, and her ultimate acceptance of her son with his handicaps.

When Paul Collins's son Morgan was two years old, he could read, spell, and perform multiplication tables in his head...but not answer to his own name. A casual conversation-or any social interaction that the rest of us take for granted-will, for Morgan, always be a cryptogram that must be painstakingly decoded. He lives in a world of his own: an autistic world. In Not Even Wrong, Paul Collins melds a memoir of his son's autism with a journey into this realm of permanent outsiders. Examining forgotten geniuses and obscure medical archives, Collins's travels take him from an English churchyard to the Seattle labs of Microsoft, and from a Wisconsin prison cell block to the streets of Vienna. It is a story that reaches from a lonely clearing in the Black Forest into the London palace of King George I, from Defoe and Swift to the discovery of evolution; from the modern dawn of the computer revolution to, in the end, the author's own household. Not Even Wrong is a haunting journey into the borderlands of neurology - a meditation on what 'normal' is, and how human genius comes to us in strange and wondrous forms.

This is a clear and concise guide to effective classroom practice for teachers and support assistants working with children with Asperger Syndrome in mainstream schools and other non-specialist settings. The authors outline the underlying impairments and their educational implications, and consider the issues of assessment and diagnosis. They offer practical strategies for effective and realistic classroom intervention, including access to the National Curriculum, and consider the behavioral challenges the child with Asperger Syndrome may pose.

The Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccine controversy has been characterized by two one-sided discourses. In the medical world, the weight of opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of MMR. In the public world, the anti-MMR campaign has a much greater influence, centered on the fears of parents that the triple vaccine may cause autism in their children. Both professionals and parents struggle to cope with the anxieties this creates, but find it is difficult to find a balanced account of the issues. In MMR and Autism , Michael Fitzpatrick, a general practitioner who is also the parent of an autistic child, explains why he believes the anti-MMR campaign is misguided in a way that will reassure parents considering vaccination and also relieve the anxieties of parents with autistic children. At the same time the book provides health care professionals and health studies students with an accessible overview of a contemporary health issue with significant policy implications.

Autism: disease, disorder or difference? What causes autism - genes or environment? Can biomedical treatments cure autism, and are they safe? An increased public awareness of autism has resulted in a rising trend of diagnoses, creating the impression of an 'epidemic'. Many parents of children newly diagnosed with autism have been impressed by plausible theories blaming vaccines and other environmental causes. Many have also been captivated by claims that 'biomedical' treatments - including special diets and supplements, detoxification and medications - can achieve dramatic results.In "Defeating Autism", Michael Fitzpatrick, a family doctor and father of a son with autism, questions the scientific basis of environmental explanations of autism and exposes the incoherence of unorthodox 'biomedical' theories and therapies. This book reveals that these therapies are far from pioneering interventions and they remain unsubstantiated by scientific authorities. Campaigns promising to 'defeat or cure autism now' have attracted much support among parents struggling with their difficult children. But the crusade against autism risks dehumanising and stigmatising those who are identified as autistic and their families. This compelling book is essential reading for students and professionals working in the field of autism, as well as academics concerned with the public understanding of science and the treatment of scientific and medical controversies in the media.

How do we know if a treatment works, or if something causes cancer? Can the claims of homeopaths ever be as true � or as interesting as the improbable research into the placebo effect? Who created the MMR hoax? Do journalists understand science? Why do we seek scientific explanations for social, personal and political problems? Are alternative therapists and the pharmaceutical companies really so different, or do they just use the same old tricks to sell different types of pill? We are obsessed with our health. And yet -- from the media�s 'world-expert microbiologist' with a mail-order PhD in his garden shed laboratory, via multiple health scares and miracle cures, to the million pound trial that Durham Council now denies ever existed -- we are constantly bombarded with inaccurate, contradictory and sometimes even misleading information. Until now. Ben Goldacre masterfully dismantles the dodgy science behind some of the great drug trials, court cases and missed opportunities of our time, but he also goes further: out of the bulls---, he shows us the fascinating story of how we know what we know, and gives us the tools to uncover bad science for ourselves.

An explosive child who frequently exhibits severe noncompliance, temper outbursts, and verbal or physical aggression.If this sounds like your child, you're probably feeling frustrated, guilt-ridden, and overwhelmed. At last, Dr. Ross Greene offers help for you and your child. Now updated with new practical information, The Explosive Child lays out a sensitive, practical approach to helping your child at home and school, including: reducing hostility and antagonism between the child and adults; anticipating situations in which the child is most likely to explode; creating an eviornment in which explosions are less likely to occur; focusing less on reward and punishment and more on communication and calloborating problem solving; helping your child develop the skills to be more flexible and handle frustration more adaptively. In The Explosive Child, you'll find ways to regain and optimism and to handle your child's difficulties competently and with compassion.

This global exploration of autism by an anthropologist -- and father of a child with autism -- is the first book to show that the autism "epidemic" holds surprising new promise for better diagnosis and treatment. Unstrange Minds documents Grinker's quest to find out why autism is so much more common today, and to uncover the implications of the increase. His search took him to Africa, India, and East Asia, to the National Institutes of Mental Health, and to the mountains of Appalachia . What he discovered is both surprising and controversial: the high rates of autism may not be proof of an epidemic. Grinker shows that the identification and treatment of autism everywhere depends on culture just as much as on science. With the rise of parent advocacy, mainstreaming in education, public awareness, and the decline of the stigma of brain-based disorders, there are more people in the world today with a diagnosis of autism today than at any time in history. Doctors are describing and treating the disorder better, epidemiologists are counting it better, school systems are coding it better -- and children are benefiting. There is more research, more special education, more philanthropy, more understanding of how families struggle to cope. Finally, after all these years, we've realized that autism is a major public health concern. Filled with moving stories from throughout the world, and informed by the latest science and Grinker's own experience raising a daughter with autism, Unstrange Minds is unlike any other book on autism. It is a powerful testament to a father's quest for the truth, and is urgently relevant to anyone whose life is touched by one of history's most puzzling disorders.

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. At fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbour's dog Wellington impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing. Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer, and turns to his favourite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As Christopher tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, the narrative draws readers into the workings of Christopher's mind.

Does your child have trouble speaking or listening? This fully revised and updated edition of the essential guide explains what you can do to help Have you noticed that your child has difficulty getting the right words out, following directions, or being understood? If so, speech-language pathologist Patricia Hamaguchi -who has been helping children overcome problems like these for more than twenty years-has now revised and updated her highly effective guide to help you determine what's best for your child. Find out all you need to know about: Autism/PDD, central auditory processing disorders, dyspraxia, bilingual language development, adoption issues, thumb-sucking, and more How to recognize the most common speech, language, and listening problems When to get help for your child and when to wait Where to find the right specialist and what to ask How to read and understand the jargon-filled evaluation report The very latest changes in philosophy, treatment approach, labeling, laws, programs, and resources How the problem may affect your child academically, socially, and at home Tips for helping your child at home 'Provides valuable information for parents of children with speech, language, and listening problems.'--Sandra C. Holley, Ph.D., Former President, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome takes a playful look at Asperger Syndrome (AS), drawing inspiration from the feline world in a way that will strike a chord with all those who are familiar with AS. Delightful colour photographs of cats bring to life familiar characteristics such as sensitive hearing, scampering at the first sign of being stroked, and particular eating habits. Touching, humorous and insightful, this book evokes the difficulties and joys of raising a child who is different and leaves the reader with a sense of the dignity, individuality, and potential of people with AS. This engaging book is an ideal, gentle introduction to the world of AS.

Have you ever been called a freak or a geek? Have you ever felt like one? Luke Jackson is 13 years old and has Asperger Syndrome. Over the years Luke has learned to laugh at such names but there are other aspects of life which are more difficult. Adolescence and the teenage years are a minefield of emotions, transitions and decisions and when a child has Asperger Syndrome, the result is often explosive. Luke has three sisters and one brother in various stages of their adolescent and teenage years but he is acutely aware of just how different he is and how little information is available for adolescents like himself. Drawing from his own experiences and gaining information from his teenage brother and sisters, he wrote this enlightening, honest and witty book in an attempt to address difficult topics such as bullying, friendships, when and how to tell others about AS, school problems, dating and relationships, and morality.

People with Asperger Syndrome (AS) understand and respond to the world in a very different way from people without this condition. The challenge for psychotherapists working with Asperger clients lies in setting aside their own preconceptions and learning to understand their client's perspective. Behavior that, in a "neurotypical" client, may be evidence of a problem, in an Asperger client may simply be a manifestation of Asperger ways of approaching the world. Paula Jacobsen demonstrates, through case studies, how to interpret classic analytic and psychodynamic theories in relation to people with AS. Readable and sympathetic, her book will be illuminating reading for people with AS, family and friends as well as professionals.

Finding out that your child has Asperger Syndrome can be devastating enough, but when you discover that he or she won't eat 99.9 per cent of all food and drink in the known universe, the fun really starts. The author found herself in this situation when her son first took a dislike to milk, then to virtually every other food. Her book was written to reassure other parents in the same boat, and to suggest practical methods of dealing with the problem. The experience of other parents, children, and professionals with first-hand knowledge of dietary difficulties, and their advice and comments, are also included.

We invite you to join us on our journey of discovery into realms of inner space. This is not a book that will give you a list of pathologies and signs. Rather we ask you to admire our surprising gifts and our insights that push the boundaries of what the human mind can accomplish. But we also ask you to recognize the very real limitations that frustrate us....

Written with love and expertise by the mother of an autistic teenager, 'The Speed of Dark' is a riveting exploration into the mind of an autistic man as he struggles with the question of whether he should risk a medical procedure that could make him 'normal.'

How do teachers and parents of children with autism address a child's social skills? And what do they do about problem behaviors? This book provides possible explanations for these behaviors, and a wealth of practical help for both teachers and parents to address them. Teachers learn how to create environmental supports and how to incorporate specific teaching strategies. Students with autism learn the new skills they might need, and ways of making their behavior more acceptable. This book is full of practical tips on how to tackle different kinds of challenging behaviors both in the classroom and outside it.

Once in a great while, a special person emerges in the history of science and medicine whose unique set of characteristics sheds light on an entire disorder and sometimes even on the mysteries of the human brain. Tito is such a person. Although he is severely autistic and nearly nonverbal, his ability to communicate through his extraordinary writing is astonishing. At the age of three, Tito was diagnosed with severe autism, but his mother, with boundless hope and determination, read to him and taught him to write in English. She also challenged him to write his own stories. The result of their efforts is this remarkable book-written when he was 8 to 11 years old-comprising profound and startling philosophical prose and poetry. His beautifully crafted language reveals how it feels to be locked inside an autistic body and mind. THE MIND TREE is the work of an artist. With each page, Tito bursts through his silence into a world of art, beauty and hope.

Do Vaccines Cause Autism, Asthma, Diabetes? Get straight, science-based answers to this and other questions about the safety of vaccines. In this book you will find the facts--no advocating hype or anti-vaccine propaganda. You will discover how to: Balance the risks and benefits of immunizations for your child. Recognize red flags that should raise alarms about vaccine- related information you read in the media. Determine whether or not a vaccine is the cause of an adverse event or disease. Find up-to-date, complete, and scientifically valid information about vaccines so you can make informed decisions about immunizations. This guide will help you sort through all the misinformation that makes it hard to decide what's best for your child's health.

Written for professionals and parents alike, Asperger Syndrome and Rage: Practical Solutions for a Difficult Moment offers practical solutions to the day-to-day challenges facing individuals with Asperger Syndrome and their families. With a major emphasis on tantrums and other behavioral outbursts, the book offers strategies that promote social skills development, including self-awreness, self-calming and self-management thereby promoting effective lifelong practices. Solutions for parents include organization and support, the importance of daily routines, signs to watch for and more. This clear and concise discussion of the rage cycle and what can be done to stop it from escalating offers helpful suggestions designed to help children and youth function more successfully both at home and at school.

The realization that "our community seemed to know more about the first twenty years of an autistic person's life than it did about the rest of that life" leads the Newports to tell their own boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-finds-girl love story�but with a difference, for both suffer from Asperger's syndrome. At times, this "terminal cluelessness" seems both the cause of and the least of their problems: Jerry's life "had drifted from one failed vocation to the next, [among them] pot dealer, horse-race betting fanatic, taxi driver, Goodwill bell ringer, bookstore cashier, elementary school librarian." Mary's more traumatic experiences included a cult marriage, abusive lovers and mental hospital stints. Both grapple with anxiety and despair before epiphanies: for Jerry, when he sees Rain Man; for Mary, when her brother directs her to the Autistic Society. Love for the two slips in the day they meet at a party for adult autistics. Then they experienced media fame, becoming "Mr. and Mrs. Autism" (a front-page profile in the Los Angeles Times; a 60 Minutes visit; an eponymous movie). Boy loses girl again in a divorce, but love triumphs. Along the way, autistic readers will find comforting fellowship, and general readers will acquire valuable knowledge. (Publisher's Weekly)

A London researcher was the first to assert that the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine known as MMR caused autism in children. Following this "discovery," a handful of parents declared that a mercury-containing preservative in several vaccines was responsible for the disease. If mercury caused autism, they reasoned, eliminating it from a child's system should treat the disorder. Consequently, a number of untested alternative therapies arose, and, most tragically, in one such treatment, a doctor injected a five-year-old autistic boy with a chemical in an effort to cleanse him of mercury, which stopped his heart instead. Children with autism have been placed on stringent diets, subjected to high-temperature saunas, bathed in magnetic clay, asked to swallow digestive enzymes and activated charcoal, and injected with various combinations of vitamins, minerals, and acids. Instead of helping, these therapies can hurt those who are most vulnerable, and particularly in the case of autism, they undermine childhood vaccination programs that have saved millions of lives. An overwhelming body of scientific evidence clearly shows that childhood vaccines are safe and does not cause autism. Yet widespread fear of vaccines on the part of parents persists. In this book, Paul A. Offit, a national expert on vaccines, challenges the modern-day false prophets who have so egregiously misled the public and exposes the opportunism of the lawyers, journalists, celebrities, and politicians who support them. Offit recounts the history of autism research and the exploitation of this tragic condition by advocates and zealots. He considers the manipulation of science in the popular media and the courtroom, and he explores why society is susceptible to the bad science and risky therapies put forward by many antivaccination activists.

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. The book contains a wealth of insight into the autistic world and the author covers all the main topics of most concern for people with autism. She identifies the reasons for particular characteristic behaviour and is both clear and sensitive about whether, and if how so, the autistic person should be encouraged to adapt such behaviours. Drawn from her own experience, she has many suggestions for ways in which the 'normal' world can shape itself to work around the behavioural characteristics of autistic people. Her book is for anyone who is interested in learning more about autism, including families and friends of autistic people, doctors and therapists, and all those who work with them. It will also prove a source of inspiration to autistic people themselves.

This volume, the first scholarly book on autism and the humanities, brings scholars from several different disciplines together with adults on the autism spectrum to investigate the diverse ways that autism has been represented in novels, poems, autobiographies, films and clinical discourses, and to explore the connections and demarcations between autistic and normal creative expression.

Asperger Syndrome and high-functioning autism are detected earlier and more accurately today than ever before. Children and teens with these disorders often stand out for their precocious intelligence and language abilities--yet profound social difficulties can limit every aspect of their lives. This hopeful, compassionate guide shows parents how to work with their child's unique impairments and capabilities to help him or her learn to engage more fully with the world and live as self-sufficiently as possible. From leading experts in the field, the book is packed with practical ideas for helping children relate more comfortably to peers,learn the rules of appropriate behavior, and participate more fully in school and family life. It also explains what scientists currently know about autistic spectrum disorders and how they are diagnosed and treated. Real-life success stories, problem-solving ideas, and matter-of-fact advice on everything from educational placements to career planning make this an indispensable reference that families will turn to again and again.

Faced with her two-year-old toddler's precipitous bout with epilepsy and his puzzling behaviors, Valerie Paradiz took a bold and unusual path, coming to terms with and ultimately embracing the strange beauty of her son Elijah's special neurological disorder, which was diagnosed as Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. In Elijah's Cup, Paradiz tells the powerful story of her family's struggle with her son's disease, one characterized by social awkwardness, literal-mindedness, and a fixation with particular subjects and interests. Like attention deficit disorder (ADD), dyslexia, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Asperger's has exploded in diagnosis in the last decade, reconfiguring the known incidence of autism in the population with estimates as high as one in fifty people. Ever since autism was 'discovered' by researchers in the 1940s, the disability has been under the strict purview of professionals in medicine, psychiatry, and education. Like the deaf community, autistics themselves have had little voice in expressing their real experience and needs. They were framed as too 'sick' to be conscious of their own internal lives, too 'mentally ill' to possess an identity. All this has changed.

Ask and Tell: Self-Advocacy and Disclosure for People on the Autism Spectrum aims to help people with autism effectively self-advocate in their pursuit of independent, productive, and fulfilling lives. Ask and Tell is unique by being the first book to speak to the twin issues of self-advocacy and disclosure for people with autism and by consisting exclusively -- including the cover art and the preface by Temple Grandin -- of contributions by those on the autism spectrum for persons on the spectrum.

Intended for the professionals who work with autistic people and their families and friends, Learning to Live with High Functioning Autism draws on the Stanton family's experiences, and compares it with the experiences of others, to offer an honest portrayal of what living with autism is actually like for all of those involved. It offers an insight into the world of autistic children and the problems that they and their families face. It will provide support and encouragement for families of children with autism, as well as being an invaluable source of information and advice for professionals working with autistic children and their families. Most important of all, it argues convincingly that learning to live with autism is a two-way process. We have to reject all models of intervention based upon coercion and compliance in order to work in partnership with young people with autism.

Parents, caregivers and educators are often at a loss about how best to support an individual with autism because they are overwhelmed by 'behaviors,' inundated with prognoses and clinical jargon, or confused by technical information. This book introduces autism from a non-clinical, humanistic perspective emphasizing that we are all more alike than different. The author deconstructs the fundamental components of autism using language, examples and anecdotes that are concrete and understandable for all. Reinforced for the reader is the importance of listening carefully to what people are telling us about valuing differences, personal passions, communication, and holistic wellness. Group brainstorming exercise activities are included.

Jennifer Venditti's first feature documentary tells the story of Billy, an articulate but isolated fifteen-year-old boy trying to figure out life and death, love, and rock and roll. Nerdy but heroic, Billy wanders through the quiet streets of small-town Maine, trying to traverse the frustrating gap between imagination and reality. By turns exhilarating and disturbing, and featuring an explosive soundtrack of KISS and a host of hot indie artists, Billy the Kid captures an intimate view of an expressive and seemingly fearless outsider.

Pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) include autism and a range of other neurological disorders. While at least 250,000 Americans have been diagnosed with PDD-NOS, one-third of whom are children, twice as many may remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Parents of a young child with undiagnosed PDD may suspect any number of things, from autism to severe allergies. Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Diagnosis, Options, and Answers is for parents (or newly diagnosed adults) who struggle with this neurological condition. Medications, therapies, and educational techniques can address symptoms and improve the lives of people with PDD. In some cases, the results can be spectacular. Weaving in a range of stories from parents who are raising children with PDDs, author Mitzi Waltz covers topics such as: getting a diagnosis, including preparing for a diagnostic interview in a medical, psychiatric, or school setting, with descriptions of all diagnostic tests and checklists/questions used by professionals; treatment options such as: medications and supplements; sensory integration; occupational, physical, and speech therapy; behavior modification; 'floor time' play and talk therapy; and parenting techniques; coping with diagnosis and treatment, including emotions and support systems, insurance, and educational plans

Individuals with autism are reportedly one of the most difficult populations to toilet train. This second edition offers effective strategies that take the child's physical and emotional sensitivities into account instead of trying to force traditional methods. Easy-to-read bulleted lists offer more than 200 do's and don'ts, along with over 50 real-life examples, to help make the process more of a lesson and less of a battle for all involved. The young trainee will learn to overcome fear of the bathroom, properly use toilet paper, flush once, wash hands, and more. The toilet trainer will learn how to overcome challenges caused by communication needs, sensory sensitivities, motor challenges, anxiety levels, etc.

In Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy, Pete and Pam Wright teach you how to plan, prepare, organize -- and get quality special education services. In this comprehensive, easy-to-read book, you learn about your child's disability and educational needs; creating a simple method for organizing your child's file; devising a master plan for your child's special education; roles of experts: consultants and evaluators; writing SMART IEP goals and objectives; using test scores to monitor your child's progress; understanding parent-school conflict - why it is inevitable and how to resolve it; creating paper trails; writing effective letters; using worksheets, agendas and thank-you letters; strategies to improve meeting outcomes; negotiating for special education services. This practical user-friendly book includes hundreds of strategies, tips, references, warnings, and Internet resources. Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy includes dozens of worksheets, forms, and sample letters that you can tailor to your needs.