Autism Adulthood: Strategies and Insights for a Fulfilling Life

"The fear that keeps many parents of autistic children — particularly those with significant support needs — turning over and over in their beds at night is, “What will my son or daughter do when I’m no longer around to help them?” In her frank and deeply touching new book Autism Adulthood: Strategies and Insights for a Fulfilling Life , Susan Senator shares the intimate details of her journey with her son, Nat, as he takes his first steps toward maturity in a society that offers few resources for people on the spectrum after they “age out” of the meager level of services provided to school-age children. She faces the big issues — housing, employment, relationships with siblings, finding trustworthy caregivers — head-on, and offers practical strategies for giving young autistic people the best chance to lead happy, safe, and secure lives, mapping a pathway to the future that offers autistic people and their families real hope, rather than false hopes built on misguided promises of a cure. By doing so, she offers a blueprint for a world in which people at every point on the spectrum are treated as fellow citizens who deserve respect and the ability to make choices, rather than puzzles to be solved by the next medical breakthrough. By the way, one addition to the five books I’ve chosen is a charming book that came out last summer, Everyday Aspergers by Samantha Craft. By exploring her own experience of being autistic in witty and finely observed detail, Craft teaches us all about what it means to be human. One hilarious and poignant section called “116 Reasons I Know I Have Asperger’s Syndrome” is worth the price of the book alone."