Thinking Person's Guide to Autism (TPGA) is the resource we wish we'd had when autism first became part of our lives: a one-stop source for carefully curated, evidence-based information from autistics, autism parents, and autism professionals.

    Translating from sign language to spoken language and back again, he enables his father to communicate with local shopkeepers, awakens his parents when his baby brother cries, and even interprets at a less-than-glowing parent-teacher conference. At times, he's embarrassed by his parents, and hurt that his father is called "dummy." But in the end, his overwhelming love and compassion leaves a lasting effect.

    The newly revised section offers new units on verbs in ASL, simple sentences in ASL, classifier predicates, syntax, and basic sentence types. The fourth edition also features groundbreaking research on iconic signs in ASL and the relationship between metaphor and iconicity in signed languages; variation in ASL; the different functions of space in ASL; and the artistic forms of ASL, including storytelling, percussion signing, drama, comedy, and poetry.Updated references and expanded readings delineate all of the linguistic basics, including phonology, semantics, and language use. The fourth edition also provides new homework assignments that correspond to the ASL stories signed on the special DVD enclosed with this new volume.

    A successful journalist and mother to four children, she had spent her whole life feeling as if she were running a different operating system to those around her. This book charts a year in her life and offers a unique insight into the autistic mind and the journey from diagnosis to acceptance. Drawing on personal experience, research and conversations with experts, she learns how 'different' doesn't need to mean 'less' and how it's never too late for any of us to find our place in the world. Laura explores how and why female autism is so under-diagnosed and very different to that seen in men and boys and explores difficulties and benefits neurodiversity can bring.

    Now including a new introduction explaining the impact of DSM-5 on the diagnosis and approach to AS, it brings together a wealth of information on all aspects of the syndrome for children through to adults.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* 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.Essential reading for families and individuals affected by AS as well as teachers, professionals and employers coming in contact with people with AS, this book should be on the bookshelf of anyone who needs to know or is interested in this complex condition.'I usually say to the child, "Congratulations, you have Asperger's syndrome", and explain that this means he or she is not mad, bad or defective, but has a different way of thinking.' - from The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome.

    Just such a village -- an isolated Bedouin community in Israel with an unusually high rate of deafness -- is at the heart of "Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind." There, an indigenous sign language has sprung up, used by deaf and hearing villagers alike. It is a language no outsider has been able to decode, until now.A "New York Times" reporter trained as a linguist, Margalit Fox is the only Western journalist to have set foot in this remarkable village. In "Talking Hands, " she follows an international team of scientists that is unraveling this mysterious language.Because the sign language of the village has arisen completely on its own, outside the influence of any other language, it is a living demonstration of the "language instinct," man's inborn capacity to create language. If the researchers can decode this language, they will have helped isolate ingredients essential to all human language, signed and spoken. But as "Talking Hands" grippingly shows, their work in the village is also a race against time, because the unique language of the village may already be endangered."Talking Hands" offers a fascinating introduction to the signed languages of the world -- languages as beautiful, vital and emphatically human as any other -- explaining why they are now furnishing cognitive scientists with long-sought keys to understanding how language works in the mind.Written in lyrical, accessible prose, "Talking Hands" will captivate anyone interested in language, the human mind and journeys to exotic places.

    Davis argues forcefully against 'ableist' discourse and for a complete recasting of the category of disability itself. Enforcing Normalcy surveys the emergence of a cluster of concepts around the term 'normal' as these matured in Western Europe and the United States over the past 250 years. Linking such notions to the concurrent emergence of discourses about the nation, Davis shows how the modern nation-state contracted its identity on the backs not only of colonized subjects, but of its physically disabled minority. In a fascinating chapter on contemporary cultural theory, Davis explores the pitfalls of privileging the figure of sight in conceptualizing the nature of textuality. And in the treatment of nudes and fragmented bodies in Western art, he shows how the ideal of physical wholeness is both demanded and denied in the classical aesthetics of representation. Enforcing Normalcy redraws the boundaries of political and cultural discourse. By insisting that disability be added to the familiar triad of race, class, and gender, the book challenges progressives to expand the limits of their thinking about human oppression.

    Explores canine behavior and behavior problems, including recognizing, preventing and correcting them.

    Whether you re a beginner, a student, or a career artist looking to be in the best museum shows, this book provides ways of advancing your plans on any level. Making It in the Art World is an invaluable resource for artists at every stage, offering readers a plethora of strategies and helpful tips to plan and execute a successful artistic career. Topics include how to evaluate your own work, how to submit art, how to present work to the public, how to avoid distractions in the studio, and much more.

    Thomas W. Phelan, an internationally renowned expert and lecturer on child discipline and ADHD. Completely updated with the latest research and treatment information, All About ADHD is a comprehensive guide to ADHD's symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment in children and adults, including information such as:· The basic symptoms of ADHD and their effects on school, work, home, and personal relationships· The differences in ADHD between boys and girls· Counseling, school interventions, behavior management, and social skills trainingWritten in easy-to-understand language and with a positive, treatment-focused approach, All About ADHD is a must-have resource for parents, teachers, physicians, and mental health professionals.

    

    Nothing is impossible when one digs deep,and looks at students through a new lens.

    Autism consultant Alyson Beytien outlines over 150 tried-and-true techniques for home, school, and community. Alyson’s three boys cover the whole spectrum of autism—Asperger’s 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”—Alyson’s 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, today’s crisis is tomorrow’s humor. Her family’s motto will soon become your everyday mantra:  “Improvise and Overcome!”

    It was no wonder he gravitated to machines, which could, at least, be counted on.After fleeing his parents and dropping out of high school, his savant-like ability to visualize electronic circuits landed him a gig with KISS, for whom he created their legendary fire-breathing guitars. Later, he drifted into a “real” job, as an engineer for a major toy company. But the higher Robison rose in the company, the more he had to pretend to be “normal” and do what he simply couldn’t: communicate. It wasn’t worth the paycheck.It was not until he was forty that an insightful therapist told him he had the form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. That understanding transformed the way Robison saw himself—and the world.Look Me in the Eye is the moving, darkly funny story of growing up with Asperger’s at a time when the diagnosis simply didn’t exist. A born storyteller, Robison takes you inside the head of a boy whom teachers and other adults regarded as “defective,” who could not avail himself of KISS’s endless supply of groupies, and who still has a peculiar aversion to using people’s given names (he calls his wife “Unit Two”). He also provides a fascinating reverse angle on the younger brother he left at the mercy of their nutty parents—the boy who would later change his name to Augusten Burroughs and write the bestselling memoir Running with Scissors.Ultimately, this is the story of Robison’s journey from his world into ours, and his new life as a husband, father, and successful small business owner—repairing his beloved high-end automobiles. It’s a strange, sly, indelible account—sometimes alien, yet always deeply human.

    When soldiers breaking up a protest kill a deaf boy, Petya, the gunshot becomes the last thing the citizens hear--they all have gone deaf, and their dissent becomes coordinated by sign language. The story follows the private lives of townspeople encircled by public violence: a newly married couple, Alfonso and Sonya, expecting a child; the brash Momma Galya, instigating the insurgency from her puppet theater; and Galya's girls, heroically teaching signing by day and by night luring soldiers one by one to their deaths behind the curtain. At once a love story, an elegy, and an urgent plea, Ilya Kaminsky's long-awaited Deaf Republic confronts our time's vicious atrocities and our collective silence in the face of them.Finalist for the T. S. Eliot PrizeFinalist for the Forward Prize for Best Collection