Growing Up on the Spectrum: A Guide to Life, Love, and Learning for Teens and Young Adults with Autism and Asperger's

by Lynn Kern Koegel, Claire LaZebnik

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Parenting, Aspergers, Medicine

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[DW Rowlands]

I was definitely disappointed that, despite the title, the book was pretty much entirely directed at parents of teens and young adults with autism, rather than at teens and young adults with autism. The fact that one of the author is an autism mother, but neither of them has autism, may contribute to that.

Anyway, the book seemed like a mixture of some good ideas (using a golf wrist counter to keep track of behaviors you're trying to get into the habit of or out of the habit of), ideas that seemed questionable, and ones that sounded horrifying (try to take away or eliminate any of your kids' stims that might make them look unusual to others).

[Lynnaea]

A great idea for a book - addressing some of the challenges faced by adolescents and young adults with autism through the perspective of a psychologist, parent, and teenager. There are some good ideas communicated simply, but unfortunately, this book is becoming quite dated. Several ideas about autism have now been adjusted considerably in light of information from autistic people as well as progressing research. Also, some advice I straight up disagree with in today's highly digital world (e.g., "internet friends are not real friends", for example. I do agree one shouldn't only socialize online, but I think nowadays it's a valid way to connect with others and develop friendships that might extend to the real world).

3/5

[Hannah Mullen]

Not geared towards teens dispute the title. Didn't even get a quarter of the way through.

[Morals]

This book is wonderfull

[Davila EichKong]

xoxoxoxo

[Marcus Clark]

Growing Up on the Spectrum
A guide to Life, Love, and Learning for Teens and Young Adults with Autism and Asperger's

by Lynnn Kern Koegel, Ph.D., and Claire LaZebnik (2009)

There are over half a million Americans under the age of twenty-one who are autistic. In the 1960s only one in every 2,500 children was diagnosed as autistic, now it is one in every 150. Autism has a wide range of intensity, that is why it is called a Spectrum. A person can have some or all of the various autistic aspects.

Asperger's syndrome is sometimes called high-functioning autism, because these people often have superior mental abilities or skills -- way beyond any normal person -- but only in certain areas, such as mathematics. While they might have incredible ability with math, they can have problems crossing a road, or using a knife and fork at the same time.

Some people on the spectrum have made marvellous breakthroughs in science, medicine, computers, due to their astonishing mental abilities. Not everyone on the Spectrum is a brilliant scientist, but many of the great innovators have been people on the autistic spectrum.

You might not have an autistic child or teenager, but I think you could still find this an interesting book. When next you meet someone on the spectrum you will have a better understanding of the difficulties they have. You will be more empathetic to others in society, whether you know the name of their condition or not.

Growing Up on the Spectrum is about assisting kids to find ways of coping with their disabilities. These children and teenagers require extraordinary assistance in overcoming their deficiencies. The most significant problem is in the area of communication. Spectrum children don't know how to make small talk, they don't know when it is their turn to speak, they don't know when to stop speaking, they don't know how not to bore their audience with endless talk about their own obsessions, they do not even know to look at the person they are talking to. These problems -- just some of the dozens -- become road blocks in their journey to adulthood.

Parents see little hope that their children will ever grow into independent adults who will find a career, marry, and have children. Yet it doesn't have to be like that. Many teenagers on the spectrum learn how to cope with their problems, but they have to be taught, encouraged, assisted. And this book leads the way.

The information needed to assist them is just starting to flow through with books like this one. The authors are Claire, along with her teenage son who is on the spectrum, and Dr Koegel. Together they have devised practical strategies to teach and encourage those on the spectrum to overcome their difficulties to the point they can have partners, go to college, get a job, and have a family.

We know these tasks are not simple for anyone! But for someone on the spectrum they are ten times more difficult. University is usually very difficult for them, because they have problems finding their classes, making notes while listening to a lecture (that is doing two things at the same time). For someone on the spectrum, organizing their time, prioritising their studies, dressing appropriately, maintaining hygiene, and learning to communicate to fellow students, are all hard work.

Those on the autistic spectrum often have a higher than normal IQ. Their problem comes from only being able to focus on one thing at a time, and sometimes it is the wrong thing. Perhaps when they try to cross a busy street, they are reading the number plate of every car, not just reading, perhaps memorising them, or devising reverse acronyms. They have difficulty looking at the big picture, becoming absorbed with detail. Their sense of smell, hearing, touch are often more sensitive than normal, so that things like flickering fluorescent lights cause them confusion.

Growing up on the Spectrum is easy to read, easy to understand, it presents the problems that spectrum children have, and provides ways to overcome these problems, particularly for teenagers going to high school, university, or starting a career.

What I like about this book is the way you get three viewpoints, the mother of an autistic teenager, the teenager's view, and the professional view from the specialist physician. Added together, you get a good picture of the particular problem and solution.

Claire says:

"If you dread the carpool because your child is having trouble making appropriate conversation, try to tough it out by remembering that it is your chance to learn ways to help him. Pay attention to what your child's peers are talking about, how they initiate conversation, what types of questions they ask, and so on, and then work on those areas with your own child. I would suggest starting to work on them at home (priming) first and then make suggestions to him just before you pick up his classmates... "

http://read-all-night.blogspot.com.au/

[Laurie]

This book addresses most of the issues that parents of all teens face: organization and hygiene, socialization (including bullying, dating and sex), driving, developing independent living skills, and getting ready for jobs and college. It is written in an easy-to-read tone with the authors' voices alternating between an intervention clinician and a mother whose son has Asperger's. Information includes descriptions of why each of the topics is a challenge for children on the spectrum and gives straightforward advice on how to approach and incrementally implement behavior strategies toward independence. There are also anecdotal stories written by the son with Asperger's and other people who have interactions with people on the spectrum. These add charm and perspective to each chapter.

This book is definitely geared toward teens, and although there are examples for children who are quite delayed, I felt the book would be more useful for high-functioning socialization improvements. The intervention models were fairly specific; this was the first time I had really studied behavior modification but I would imagine for parents who already had experience, the techniques would be easily understood. Depending upon what topic is your concern, I would recommend supplementing with another book or external advice, but there are definitely concrete starting points for every topic. For example, if you wanted very specific advice on academic success, you might want a second resource to accompany this book.

There is a good resource section, the book is well-organized, and there are some wonderful illustrations drawn by the son I mentioned earlier. This book changed some of my thinking about the challenges that friends, family members and my own students face and I learned some things that I think will help me be a better parent, friend and teacher. Highly recommended!

[Kris]

It has been a long time since I've read any books about autism. When my son was diagnosed as a youngster, reading books on autism was about all I did. It got to be an obsession. I just had to know what his (and our) future was going to be. After a while, I stopped reading books on autism because after a while I felt like I had read them all in one form or another.

At some point a few years ago, I must have bought this book, and then in a cleaning frenzy stacked it up with other books and put it away. In a recent cleaning frenzy, I found this book again, and thought it was probably time for me to read it. I'm glad I did.

The writers of the book, Lynn Koegel and Claire LaZebnik, have done a truly excellent job of covering all of the issues that concern parents of growing kids on the spectrum. We parents have so many worries, but there is little written about how to address those concerns. This book does a very good job. There are sections in the book dealing with preparing your child for college [and all that that entails that is different from preparing a typical kid for college], dealing with hormones, dating, sexual situations, getting a job, living independently, and more.

There's advice from Dr. Koegel, and then there's Claire LaZebnik's point of view as a parent of a kid on the spectrum, and then there's Claire's son's perspective. I really enjoy all of these point's of views, as well as some other college kid's experiences that readers can learn from. It really is a spectacular book -- very helpful to me, and very readable.

[Christine]

Absolutely excellent book geared for parents of adolescents and adults with autism or asperger's. I highly recommend it to anyone who has a child or relative with autism, or who works with children with autism.
It is extremely practical, well-organized, and gives suggestions that are simple to put into place. It uses a bit of light terminology, but takes the time to clarify the terms at the start of the book. It is extremely practical, covering just about all the areas teens on the spectrum (and their parents) might have to deal with. It goes over school in general as well as sections dedicated specifically to middle and high school, social skills, life skills, college, dating, getting a job, and just about everything else.

Dr. Koegel is a well-known researcher of autism, and her co-writer has a teenage son with autism. It's full of anecdotes and examples from Dr. Koegel's work. I loved reading all the of examples of what different problems--and their solutions--"look like" in reality. Claire also shares quite a few anecdotes and insights about her family in all the areas covered. There are even short sections written by Claire's son who has autism, which give fantastic insight into his perspective into growing up.

[Jennifer Hughes]

I highly recommend this book to parents of kids with AHDD, Aspergers, or any learning disability. It's the practical "how to" book I've been looking for for a long time...chapters on how to teach your teenager and young adult the social, school, job, and other skills they need to learn to be self-sufficient and hopefully move out of your house someday.

[Ned]

Starts out well, but immediately gets into territory that's a bit ahead of my current interests - this covers things like dating and self-monitoring behavior, while I'm still looking at more fundamental social skills. I'll probably set this one aside and pick up the authors' previous book to read first. Unfinished (pg 56), but I liked what I've read so far.

[Lillian Angelovic]

Lots of information for parents of teens and young adults on the autism spectrum. Some of it applied less to my high-functioning autistic child, but it was nice to see the range that they addressed here.

[Danielle]

Great resource for parents dealing with tweens/teens on the spectrum. Refreshing to find a book geared to this age group, as most focus on the early years of Autism, Aspergers, etc...

[Monica Nichols]

More geared towards parents of kids with ASD not the kids themselves

[Jeremy]

Best book on autism in (more or less) adult situations I've seen hands down.