Autism Spectrum Disorder--which includes autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Asperger's--is today's most common childhood disability. Dr. Buckley argues that this disorder is not a psychiatric condition but a physiological disease that must be medically treated.

Autism is usually portrayed as a checklist of deficits, including difficulties interacting socially, problems in communicating, sensory challenges, and repetitive behavior patterns. This perspective leads to therapies focused on ridding individuals of "autistic" symptoms. Now Dr. Barry M. Prizant, an internationally renowned autism expert, offers a new and compelling paradigm: the most successful approaches to autism don't aim at fixing a person by...

Rachael Lee Harris spent her early childhood locked in an autistic fog until beginning her journey from a fragmented world to one in which things began to make sense. Rachael's determination to take her place in society led her down many paths, from beauty therapist to Catholic nun, from mother and wife to divorcee and working mom. Today, she is a psychotherapist specializing in helping others on the Autism Spectrum. Rachael's story explores areas...

Living with Autism features fictional narratives paired with firsthand advice from a medical expert to help preteens and teenagers feel prepared for dealing with autism during adolescence. Topics include causes and prevention, current treatments, alternative treatments, public understanding and support, survival tools, learning to cope, ways to help friends with autism, and living with autism. Throughout the book, Ask Yourself This questions encourage...

A father's inspiring portrait of his daughter informs this classic reassessment of the "epidemic" of autism. When Isabel Grinker was diagnosed with autism in 1994, it occurred in only about 3 of every 10,000 children. Within ten years, rates had skyrocketed. Some scientists reported rates as high as 1 in 150. The media had declared autism an epidemic. “Unstrange Minds” documents the global quest of Isabel's father, renowned anthropologist Roy...

From the worst cases of syphilis to Sigmund Freud's first cases of hysteria, from baffling new disorders in 19th century Britain to the modern scourge of autism, this book traces the long overlooked history of mercury poisoning. It demonstrates with clarity how chemical and environmental clues may have been missed as medical "experts," many of them blinded by decades of systemic bias, instead placed blamed on parental behavior or children's biology....

"Since first being identified as a distinct psychiatric disorder in 1943, autism has been steeped in contestation and controversy. Present-day skirmishes over the potential causes of autism, how or even if it should be treated, and the place of Asperger's syndrome on the autism spectrum are the subjects of intense debate in the research community, in the media, and among those with autism and their families. Bringing together innovative work on autism...