Nurturing Your Autistic Young Person: A Parent’s Handbook to Supporting Newly Diagnosed Teens and Pre-Teens

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It’s the book I’d like to have read when my daughter got her autism diagnosis, seemingly out of the blue. Children have different rates of cognitive development, and ‘identity’ is an abstract concept that can be challenging. It explores specific aspects of the transition such as employment, independence and social life, and looks at how to address long-term concerns such as living arrangements and financial support. If you’re autistic, you’ve been autistic your whole life and you will gradually become aware that you experience the world in a different way to many of your peers.

young people to understand their autistic identity Helping young people to understand their autistic identity

Plenty of positive and practical suggestions on how to nurture your young person are offered alongside recommendations of how to also advocate for them. Referring to autistic identity means an individual can acknowledge all the parts that make up their identity as a whole, and the core autistic characteristics that are integral to who they are. 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. Most resources available for parents come from psychologists, educators, and doctors, offering parents a narrow and technical approach to autism. You've just received an autism diagnosis, so why do you still feel so lost when it comes to what autism actually means for you?

The book is easy to read and would enable you to gather all the evidence you could require towards the diagnosis assessment. Although my younger childhood years passed by fairly smoothly, when I reached 13, something inside of me broke. Contributors reflect on what they have learned while growing up on the autism spectrum and how parents can avoid common mistakes and overcome challenges while raising their child. The National Autistic Society is also a company limited by guarantee, registered at Companies House (01205298). I began to understand that if it wasn’t for me being autistic, and if it wasn’t for the fact nobody around me had recognised that and implemented the support I needed, that I wouldn’t have found myself detained on the psychiatric ward, and I wouldn’t have had to go through the traumatic experiences that I did.

Nurturing Your Autistic Young Person : Cathy Wassell (author

The central difficulty for people with PDA is their avoidance of the everyday demands made by other people, due to their high anxiety levels when they feel that they are not in control. I couldn’t understand why I found everything so much harder than other people my age, and why I felt so different. In an ideal world, a young person would be aware of autism at the start of their autism assessment process and then be able to build their understanding on this topic gradually and over time, with the support of understanding adults. Cathy Wassell’s book seems to have everything covered from co-occurring conditions to sensory stuff, with lots of practical advice on how to nurture and advocate for our autistic young people.I am sure it will be a reassuring, supportive and invaluable resource for any family at the start of their autism journey.