Finding the best autism books suitable for your needs isnt easy. With hundreds of choices can distract you. Knowing whats bad and whats good can be something of a minefield. In this article, weve done the hard work for you.
Reviews
1. Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism
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Uniquely Human A Different Way of Seeing AutismDescription
Winner of the Autism Society of Americas Dr. Temple Grandin Award for the Outstanding Literary Work in AutismA groundbreaking book on autism, by one of the worlds leading experts, who portrays autism as a unique way of being humanthis is required reading....Breathtakingly simple and profoundly positive (Chicago Tribune).
Autism therapy typically focuses on ridding individuals of autistic symptoms such as difficulties interacting socially, problems in communicating, sensory challenges, and repetitive behavior patterns. Now Dr. Barry M. Prizant offers a new and compelling paradigm: the most successful approaches to autism dont aim at fixing a person by eliminating symptoms, but rather seeking to understand the individuals experience and what underlies the behavior.
A must-read for anyone touched by autism... Dr. Prizants Uniquely Human is a crucial step in promoting better understanding and a more humane approach (Associated Press). Instead of classifying autistic behaviors as signs of pathology, Dr. Prizant sees them as part of a range of strategies to cope with a world that feels chaotic and overwhelming. Rather than curb these behaviors, its better to enhance abilities, build on strengths, and offer supports that will lead to more desirable behavior and a better quality of life.
A remarkable approach to autism....A truly impactful, necessary book (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Uniquely Human offers inspiration and practical advice drawn from Dr. Prizants four-decade career. It conveys a deep respect for people with autism and their own unique qualities. Filled with humanity and wisdom, Uniquely Human should reassure parents and caregivers of kids with autism and any other disability that their kids are not broken, but, indeed, special (Booklist, starred review).
2. Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew: Updated and Expanded Edition
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Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew Updated and Expanded EditionDescription
A bestseller gets even better! Every parent, teacher, social worker, therapist, and physician should have this succinct and informative book in their back pocket. Framed with both humor and compassion, the book describes ten characteristics that help illuminatenot definechildren with autism.
Bronze Award in Psychology, ForeWord Book of the Year Awards
Gold Award, Mom's Choice Awards
3. An Early Start for Your Child with Autism: Using Everyday Activities to Help Kids Connect, Communicate, and Learn
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Guilford PublicationsDescription
Cutting-edge research reveals that parents can play a huge role in helping toddlers and preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) connect with others and live up to their potential. This encouraging guide from the developers of a groundbreaking early intervention program provides doable, practical strategies you can use every day. Nearly all young kidsincluding those with ASDhave an amazing capacity to learn. Drs. Sally Rogers, Geraldine Dawson, and Laurie Vismara make it surprisingly simple to turn daily routines like breakfast or bath time into fun and rewarding learning experiences that target crucial developmental skills. Vivid examples illustrate proven techniques for promoting play, language, and engagement. Get an early startand give your child the tools to explore and enjoy the world.
Winner--American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award
Mental health professionals, see also the authors' related intervention manual, Early Start Denver Model for Young Children with Autism, as well as the Early Start Denver Model Curriculum Checklist for Young Children with Autism (sold in sets of 15).
4. Autism Every Day: Over 150 Strategies Lived and Learned by a Professional Autism Consultant with 3 Sons on the Spectrum
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Autism Every DayDescription
Stemming from a wealth of both professional and personal experience, this guidebook combines real-life stories of challenges and successes with practical ideas for handling autism, every day. Autism consultant Alyson Beytien outlines over 150 tried-and-true techniques for home, school, and community. Alysons three boys cover the whole spectrum of autism, Aspergers syndrome, high-functioning autism, and classic autism. She understands the wide range of needs these children have and has discovered what helps and what hinders. Covering a full gamut of issues from picky-eating and echolalia to IEPs and The Woes of Walmart. Alysons ideas and interventions will inspire and inform all those who are connected to a person with autism. Alyson believes that each day brings more opportunities to learn, problem-solve, and celebrate the joys that children with autism bring to our world after all, todays crisis is tomorrows humor. Her familys motto will soon become your everyday mantra: Improvise and Overcome!5. Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
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Neurotribes The Legacy of Autism and the Future of NeurodiversityDescription
This New York Timesbestselling book upends conventional thinking about autism and suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and full participation in society for people who think differently.What is autism? A lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth, it is all of these things and moreand the future of our society depends on our understanding it. Wired reporter Steve Silberman unearths the secret history of autism, long suppressed by the same clinicians who became famous for discovering it, and finds surprising answers to the crucial question of why the number of diagnoses has soared in recent years. Going back to the earliest days of autism research, Silberman offers a gripping narrative of Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, the research pioneers who defined the scope of autism in profoundly different ways; he then goes on to explore the game-changing concept of neurodiversity. NeuroTribes considers the idea that neurological differences such as autism, dyslexia, and ADHD are not errors of nature or products of the toxic modern world, but the result of natural variations in the human genome. This groundbreaking book will reshape our understanding of the history, meaning, function, and implications of neurodiversity in our world.
6. Autism Breakthrough: The Groundbreaking Method That Has Helped Families All Over the World
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Autism Breakthrough The Groundbreaking Method That Has Helped Families All Over the WorldDescription
As a boy, Raun Kaufman was diagnosed by multiple experts as severely autistic, with an IQ below 30, and destined to spend his life in an institution. Years later, Raun graduated with a degree in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University and has become a passionate and articulate autism expert and educator with no trace of his former condition.
So what happened?
Thanks to The Son-Rise Program, a revolutionary method created by his parents, Raun experienced a full recovery from autism. (His story was recounted in the best-selling book Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues and in the award-winning NBC television movie Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love.) In Autism Breakthrough, Raun presents the ground-breaking principles behind the program that helped him and thousands of other families with special children. Autism, he explains, is frequently misunderstood as a behavioral disorder when, in fact, it is a social relational disorder. Raun explains what it feels like to be autistic and shows how and why The Son-Rise Program works.
A step-by-step guide with clear, practical strategies that readers can apply immediatelyin some cases, parents see changes in their children in as little as one dayAutism Breakthrough makes it possible for these special children to defy their original often-very-limited prognoses. Parents and educators learn how to enable their children to create meaningful, caring relationships, vastly expand their communications, and to participate successfully in the world.
An important work of hope, science, and progress, Autism Breakthrough presents the powerful ideas and practical applications that have already changed the lives of families all over the world.
7. The Autistic Brain: Helping Different Kinds of Minds Succeed
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The Autistic Brain Helping Different Kinds of Minds SucceedDescription
Temple Grandin may be the most famous person with autism, a condition that affects 1 in 88 children. Since her birth in 1947, our understanding of it has undergone a great transformation, leading to more hope than ever before that we may finally learn the causes of and treatments for autism.
Weaving her own experience with remarkable new discoveries, Grandin introduces the advances in neuroimaging and genetic research that link brain science to behavior, even sharing her own brain scan to show which anomalies might explain common symptoms. Most excitingly, she argues that raising and educating kids on the autism spectrum must focus on their long-overlooked strengths to foster their unique contributions. The Autistic Brain brings Grandins singular perspective into the heart of the autism revolution.
"[Grandins] most insightful work to date . . . The Autistic Brain is something anyone could benefit from reading, and I recommend it to anyone with a personal or professional connection to autism or neurological difference."John Elder Robison, author of Look Me in the Eye
"The Autistic Brain can both enlighten readers with little exposure to autism and offer hope and compassion to those who live with the condition."Scientific American
8. The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism
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The Reason I Jump The Inner Voice of a Thirteen Year Old Boy with AutismDescription
One of the most remarkable books Ive ever read. Its truly moving, eye-opening, incredibly vivid.Jon Stewart, The Daily ShowNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
NPR The Wall Street Journal Bloomberg Business Bookish
FINALIST FOR THE BOOKS FOR A BETTER LIFE FIRST BOOK AWARD NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Youve never read a book like The Reason I Jump. Written by Naoki Higashida, a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, it is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one at last have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within.
Using an alphabet grid to painstakingly construct words, sentences, and thoughts that he is unable to speak out loud, Naoki answers even the most delicate questions that people want to know. Questions such as: Why do people with autism talk so loudly and weirdly? Why do you line up your toy cars and blocks? Why dont you make eye contact when youre talking? and Whats the reason you jump? (Naokis answer: When Im jumping, its as if my feelings are going upward to the sky.) With disarming honesty and a generous heart, Naoki shares his unique point of view on not only autism but life itself. His insightsinto the mystery of words, the wonders of laughter, and the elusiveness of memoryare so startling, so strange, and so powerful that you will never look at the world the same way again.
In his introduction, bestselling novelist David Mitchell writes that Naokis words allowed him to feel, for the first time, as if his own autistic child was explaining what was happening in his mind. It is no exaggeration to say that The Reason I Jump allowed me to round a corner in our relationship. This translation was a labor of love by David and his wife, KA Yoshida, so theyd be able to share that feeling with friends, the wider autism community, and beyond. Naokis book, in its beauty, truthfulness, and simplicity, is a gift to be shared.
Praise for The Reason I Jump
This is an intimate book, one that brings readers right into an autistic mind.Chicago Tribune (Editors Choice)
Amazing times a million.Whoopi Goldberg, People
The Reason I Jump is a Rosetta stone. . . . This book takes about ninety minutes to read, and it will stretch your vision of what it is to be human.Andrew Solomon, The Times (U.K.)
Extraordinary, moving, and jeweled with epiphanies.The Boston Globe
Small but profound . . . [Higashidas] startling, moving insights offer a rare look inside the autistic mind.Parade
From the Hardcover edition.
9. Autism Spectrum Disorder (revised): The Complete Guide to Understanding Autism
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Autism Spectrum Disorder revised The Complete Guide to Understanding AutismDescription
Newly revised and updated, this award-winning guide covers every aspect of understanding and living with autism todayComprehensive and authoritative, Autism Spectrum Disorders explains all aspects of the condition, and is written for parents, educators, caregivers, and others looking for accurate information and expert insight. Newly updated to reflect the latest research, treatment methods, and DSM-V criteria, this invaluable book covers:
The causes of autism spectrum disorders
Getting an accurate diagnosis
Treatments based on behavioral, psychological, and biomedical interventions
Coping strategies for families and education needs and programs
Living and working conditions for adults with ASD
Community interaction and teaching strategies and resources for educators and other professionals
**Best Book on Autism for 2017 --Healthline
10. A Parent's Guide to High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder, Second Edition: How to Meet the Challenges and Help Your Child Thrive
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A Parent s Guide to High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder Second Edition How to Meet the Challenges and Help Your Child ThriveDescription
11. I See Things Differently: A First Look at Autism (A First Look At...Series)
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I See Things Differently A First Look at AutismDescription
Psychotherapist and counselor Pat Thomas puts her gentle, yet straightforward approach to work in this new addition to Barrons highly acclaimed A First Look At...Series. This book will help children understand what autism is and how it affects someone who has it. A wonderful catalyst for discussion that will help children to better understand and support autistic classmates or siblings. The story line is simple and easily accessible to younger children, who will learn that exploring the personal feelings around social issues is a first step in dealing with them. Full-color illustrations on every page.12. 101 Games and Activities for Children With Autism, Aspergers and Sensory Processing Disorders
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McGraw-HillDescription
LEARNING THROUGH PLAY
One of the best ways for children with autism, Asperger's, and sensory processing disorders to learn is through play. Children improve their motor skills, language skills, and social skills by moving their bodies and interacting with their environment. Yet the biggest challenges parents, teachers, and loved ones face with children on the autism spectrum or with sensory processing disorders is how to successfully engage them in play.
Pediatric occupational therapist Tara Delaney provides the answer. In 101 Games and Activities for Children with Autism, Asperger's, and Sensory Processing Disorders, she shows you how to teach your children by moving their bodies through play. These interactive games are quick to learn but will provide hours of fun and learning for your child. And many of the games can be played indoors or outdoors, so your child can enjoy them at home, outside, or on field trips.
More than one hundred games that help your child:
- make eye-contact, stay focused, and strengthen his or her motor skills
- associate words with objects and improve language and numerical skills
- learn how to interact with others, how to take turns, and other social skills needed for attending preschool and school