Women Autism Spectrum

The difference that being female makes to the diagnosis, life and experiences of an autistic person is hugely significant. In this second edition, Sarah Hendrickx combines the latest research with personal stories from girls and women on the autism spectrum to present a picture of their feelings, thoughts and experiences at each stage of their lives. Outlining the likely impact will be for autistic women and girls throughout their lifespan, Hendrickx surveys everything from diagnosis, childhood, education, adolescence, friendships and sexuality, to employment, pregnancy, parenting, and aging.

Barb Cook and 14 other autistic women describe life from a female autistic perspective, and present empowering, helpful and supportive insights from their personal experience for fellow autistic women. Michelle Garnett's comments validate and expand the experiences described from a clinician's perspective, and provide extensive recommendations. Autistic advocates including Liane Holliday Willey, Anita Lesko, Jeanette Purkis, Artemisia and Samantha Craft offer their personal guidance on significant issues that particularly affect women, as well as those that are more general to autism.

This audiobook looks at what it feels like to be an autistic parent, offering valuable insights, knowledge and wisdom on parenting autistic and non-autistic children. Three mothers reflect on their experiences of growing up as undiagnosed autistics, venturing into and embracing motherhood, and connecting with their children in a unique and powerful way. Full of wit and warm advice, this audiobook empowers autistic parents and reassures them that autism is a strength in raising their children with love, knowledge and experience.

Recognizing Autism in Women & Girls provides the perspective needed to see how autism manifests in gendered ways allowing for a more accurate diagnosis. In addition to describing each point in the diagnostic manual to include feminine presentations, Dr. Marsh has created “Five Fictional Female Figures” who've been misdiagnosed because they also display symptoms of other similar conditions. She describes their behaviors, both obvious and hidden, from early childhood to adulthood, and demonstrates how these behaviors meet diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder.

A diverse collection of autistic voices that highlights how parents can avoid common mistakes and misconceptions, and make their child feel truly accepted, valued, and celebrated for who they are. Most resources available for parents come from psychologists, educators, and doctors, offering parents a narrow and technical approach to autism. Sincerely, Your Autistic Child represents an authentic resource for parents written by autistic people themselves.

Deborah, a mother of two young boys with autism, is heartbroken, perplexed, and exhausted. Through her diary, we feel her gut-wrenching agony as she helplessly watches her family disintegrate under the ruthless oppression of autism, as it cruelly invades every facet of her children’s lives, their minds, bodies, senses, and emotions. Refusing to make peace with the diagnosis, and in a place of unutterable despair, Deborah has an encounter with God, which ignites a fire of hope in her heart.

In Off the Spectrum, cognitive neuroscientist Gina Rippon sheds light on how old ideas about autism leave women behind and how the scientific community must catch up. Generations of researchers, convinced autism was a male problem, simply didn’t bother looking for it in women, creating a snowball effect of biased research. Correcting a major scientific bias, Off the Spectrum provides a much-needed exploration of autism in women to parents, clinicians, and autistic women themselves.

An incisive and deeply candid account that explores autistic women in culture, myth, and society through the prism of the author's own diagnosis.

During the first 30 years of her life, comedy script writer Sara Gibbs had been labelled a lot of things - a cry baby, a scaredy cat, a spoiled brat, a weirdo, a show off - but more than anything else, she'd been called a Drama Queen. No one understood her behaviour, her meltdowns or her intense emotions. She felt like everyone else knew a social secret that she hadn't been let in on, as if life was a party she hadn't been invited to. Why was everything so damn hard?

Paige Layle was normal. She lived in the countryside with her mom, dad, and brother Graham. She went to school, hung out with friends, and all the while everything seemed so much harder than it needed to be. A break in routine threw off the whole day. If her teacher couldn't answer “why” in class, she dissolved into tears, unable to articulate her own confusion or explain her lack of control.

Although having Asperger syndrome (AS) can make romantic relations difficult, having a fulfilling relationship with an Asperger man is certainly not impossible. A woman in love with a man with AS may interpret his difficulties with communication and socialisation as a lack of interest in the relationship. He may vacillate between being gentle and caring to seeming cold and distant. She may find his behaviour hard to understand, resulting in feelings of loneliness, isolation and confusion.

Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn’t let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become “an autistic success story”, how the process almost ruined her life, and how she is now trying to recover.

Jonathan and Annika bring out the best in each other, finding the confidence and courage within themselves to plan a future together. What follows is a tumultuous yet tender love affair that withstands everything except the unforeseen tragedy that forces them apart, shattering their connection and leaving them to navigate their lives alone.

On the morning of November 14, 1992, Annette Herfkens, a top Dutch banker, packed her luggage for a romantic getaway with her longtime fiancé, Willem. At 6:25 that morning, Annette and Willem boarded a plane out of Ho Chi Minh City, with 23 other passengers and six crew members, excited to finally have a vacation together. Six minutes before landing, flying at speed of 300 miles per hour, the plane lost altitude and crashed along a mountain ridge in the jungle of Vietnam.

In the early 1960s, Massachusetts writer and homemaker Clara Park and her husband took their three-year-old daughter, Jessy, to a specialist after noticing that she avoided connection with others. Following the conventional wisdom of the time, the psychiatrist diagnosed Jessy with autism and blamed Clara for Jessy’s isolation. Experts claimed Clara was the prototypical “refrigerator mother,” a cold, intellectual parent who starved her children of the natural affection they needed to develop properly.

With humor, vulnerability, and stories of her own limited life as a mom of five—two of whom struggle with severe autism—pastor and podcaster Jessica Hurlbut ignites hope in the hearts of overwhelmed moms to believe that God has more. Revealing twelve limits that hinder mothers—very real things like exhaustion, distractions, and disillusionment—Jessica empowers you to respond in obedience rather than react in emotions.

Stay-at-home mom Piper Whitman Hart is too close to her nine-year-old son, Fred, to realize that his idiosyncrasies are signs of something more. And just when his diagnosis of autism sends her life reeling, she's dragged back into the orbit of her emotionally abusive father, Lance, after a heart attack leaves him with brain damage.

In this inspiring collection of true stories, author Danielle Gary shares the joys and challenges of raising a child with autism, weaving together threads of humor, heartache, and hope to create a beautiful tapestry of family life. From the moment she received her son's autism diagnosis, Danielle felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of therapy hours, medical jargon, and conflicting advice. With candor and compassion, she shares how she navigated this complex landscape, shedding light on the joys, frustrations, and unexpected lessons that come with raising a child on the spectrum.

Since Joel tackles what happens when the unimaginable loss of a child becomes reality. Julie Schwartz introduces listeners to her son Joel David Schwartz, who lived with Autism Spectrum Disorder and died by accidental overdose at age 25. Joel’s unique cognition created situations where he baffled yet informed; infuriated yet endeared; lost and yet won. His mother describes how Joel was a “charming nerd”, inviting us to get to know him in all his complicated detail. She asks that we maintain Joel’s memory by finding small ways to be kind and celebrating our differences.