A groundbreaking, long overdue book that explains how to identify your autistic child's strengths and abilities and then use them as a tool for social communication, improved learning, and overall growth. The strengths of children and young adults diagnosed with ASD are commonly overlooked, even by trained professionals. Outdated attitudes, lack of sufficient training and an overreliance on standardised testing works against recognising their capabilities. Focusing on the importance of motivation strategies, Hidden Strengths shows you how to build on every autistic child's interests and strengths. Through real-life stories of individuals whose innate abilities blossomed once they were acknowledged, this book dispels unhelpful stereotypes and will help you unlock your child's potential. It also aims to educate the wider community in how to support, accept and embrace the gifts autistic individuals offer. 'Will help both parents and teachers find and develop a child's unique skills in memory, music, math, art, and attention to details. Development of these skills can lead to both a more rewarding life and possible careers' Temple Grandin, PhD, New York Times bestselling author

The first comprehensive guide to helping teens with autism--from the acclaimed authors of Overcoming Autism
With an estimated half a million Americans under twenty-six on the autism spectrum, this book offers the reassurance, solace, and practical solutions that so many people are searching for. Following up on their work in "Overcoming Autism," which offered advice for teaching young children on the spectrum, Lynn Koegel and Claire LaZebnik now present strategies for working with teens and young adults living with this complex condition. Addressing universal parental concerns, from first crushes and a changing body to how to succeed in college and beyond, "Growing Up on the Spectrum" is a beacon of hope and wisdom for parents, therapists, and educators alike.

A charmingly hilarious and deeply insightful novel about the importance and impossibility of making peace with our family.Despite her name, Keats Sedlak is the sanest person in her large, nutty family of brilliant eccentrics. Her parents, both brainy academics, are barely capable of looking after themselves, let alone anyone else, and her two uber-intelligent siblings live on their own planets. At least she can count on one person in her life, her devoted boyfriend Tom. Down-to-earth and loving, he's the one thing that's kept Keats grounded for the last decade. But when Keats's mother makes a surprise announcement, the entire family is sent into a tailspin. For the first time, Keats can't pick up the pieces by herself. Now she must reevaluate everything she's ever assumed about herself and her family--and make the biggest decision of her life.

Despite her name, Keats Sedlak is the sanest person in her large, nutty family of brilliant eccentrics. Her parents, both brainy academics, are barely capable of looking after themselves, let alone anyone else, and her two uber-intelligent siblings live on their own planets.
At least she can count on one person in her life, her devoted boyfriend Tom. Down-to-earth and loving, he's the one thing that's kept Keats grounded for the last decade. But when Keats's mother makes a surprise announcement, the entire family is sent into a tailspin. For the first time, Keats can't pick up the pieces by herself. Now she must reevaluate everything she's ever assumed about herself and her family-and make the biggest decision of her life.

When Ava Nickerson was a child, her mother jokingly betrothed her to a friend's son, and the contract the parents made has stayed safely buried for years. Now that still-single Ava is closing in on thirty, no one even remembers she was once "engaged" to the Markowitz boy. But when their mother is diagnosed with cancer, Ava's prodigal little sister Lauren comes home to Los Angeles where she stumbles across the decades-old document. Frustrated and embarrassed by Ava's constant lectures about financial responsibility (all because she's in a little debt. Okay, a lot of debt), Lauren decides to do some sisterly interfering of her own and tracks down her sister's childhood fiance. When she finds him, the highly inappropriate, twice-divorced, but incredibly charming Russell Markowitz is all too happy to re-enter the Nickerson sisters' lives, and always-accountable Ava is forced to consider just how binding a contract really is ...