The Hidden World of Autism: Writing and Art by Children with High-Functioning Autism Book

Foreword     9
Introduction     11
Notes for reading and using: The Hidden World of Autism     12
A note about the children's contributions     15
What's so Different about Me? Life on the Autistic Spectrum     17
Comorbidity in autism     21
Perspectives through poetry     27
Telling children about their diagnosis     29
Summary     30
School     31
Behavioural problems in the classroom and their link to social communication difficulties     32
Educational attainment     33
Fitting in at school     34
Help with social relationships at school     37
Support in school     38
Starting a new school: A recollection and a story     41
Summary     53
Me, My Friends and My Family     55
Does having an autistic child in the family change family relationships     56
Friendships     64
Summary     68
Those Things that I Do - Obsessions and Special Interests     69
Special interests in earlier childhood     75
Lessons from obsessions - how they can be used positively in everyday life     81
Using obsessions and special interests morewidely     83
Creating tools to help children use special interests     83
Using special interests as rewards and incentives     84
Does everyone with autism have this collection of behaviours and interests?     84
Future directions     85
Summary     86
The Future     87
Navigating outcome research - making sense of the studies     88
Perspectives on outcome: From Asperger to the present     88
Educational outcome     89
Employment     90
Psychiatric issues     91
Social and interpersonal outcome     91
Children's writing about the future     92
Summary     103
References     105
Biographies     109
Index     121