If Your Adolescent Has Autism An Essential Resource for Parents

The authoritative guide to understanding and helping an autistic teenager.

While adolescence can be a tough time for parents and their teens, autistic teenagers may face specific challenges and need targeted support from the adults in their lives. The road ahead can be difficult for parents and caregivers, too, especially because the teenage years can involve surprising changes in their child and in society's expectations of them.

This concise, readable book offers the latest in evidence-based information about what happens when autism and adolescence intersect. The book covers the teen years, addressing middle school and high school, along with the transition period from high school into adulthood and, where relevant, college and employment. Among other topics, the book addresses autism and co-occurring medical and mental health conditions, social connections, puberty and hygiene, and sexuality.

If Your Adolescent Has Autism will give parents and caregivers of autistic preadolescents and adolescents what they need: information and guidance presented with compassion and understanding, with an emphasis on both the strengths and the disability related to autism and their unique manifestations during this transitional period of life.

Emily J. Willingham is a developmental biologist and journalist who earned a PhD in biology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular developmental genetics, both after taking a bachelor's degree in English literature. She has authored several books, and her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Aeon, Undark, San Francisco Chronicle, and many other outlets. She has been a regular contributor to Scientific American.

Introduction: New Challenges in the Teenage Years
Chapter 1: Autism and Adolescence: An Overview
Chapter 2: The Secondary School Years
Chapter 3: Autism and Co-occurring Medical Conditions
Chapter 4: Autism and Co-occurring Mental Health and Behavioral Conditions
Chapter 5: Autism, Adolescence, and Social Connections
Chapter 6: Puberty and Hygiene
Chapter 7: Autism, Adolescence, and Sexuality
Chapter 8: Transition from High School
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