Girls Growing Up on the Autism Spectrum: What Parents and Professionals Should Know About the Pre-Teen and Teenage Years

After 17 years of trying to understand the laundry list of diagnosis' my daughter had received (ADHD, Severe Dyslexia, Receptive and Expressive Language Disorder, Sensory Integration and Modulation Disorder, Anxiety and OCD), I finally got my answer. When I read this book, I felt like I was reading my daughter's life story and wished I had discovered it years sooner. Interestingly, when she was 14, through the encouragement of my daughter's life long counselor, I took her to a major university and had yet another practitioner dismiss her individual issues as follows after I had him do a screening for ASD: "On a behavior rating scale specifically targeting symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder, xxx's mother provided responses indicating that she displays many symptoms similar to those of individuals with ASD. However, the combination of her learning and attention problems is more likely than ASD to explain these symptoms."So 3 years later, I read this book and was so moved, that I called the authors, flew to New York and had them evaluate her. I told them I had a pencil and a highlighter when I started reading their book and finally put them down because I was highlighting everything! The diagnosis is in and my 17 year old daughter has high functioning autism. Finally someone who understands how ASD presents in girls has put clarity to our daughter's situation and now we can more wholistically help her prepare for adult life. Girls with ASD are "research orphans" and there are few practitioners in the world that understand how differently they can present. By far, it is the most important book in my library of books on all of my daughter's challenges. It has changed our lives.

If you have a daughter, granddaughter, student, or family member on the spectrum, this book is a must read. It's at times difficult to read, but gives readers so much valuable information. Helping readers understand the differences between boys and girls on the spectrum is enlightening. It has practical suggestions and examples of the lives of girls on the spectrum. A must read!

I got this book on the advice of my daughter's Psychologist and it has opened my eyes needless to say. It is very dry to read, so keep in mind that it is a technical book about ASD's. It brings about the understanding of how girls/women who have an ASD are different that boys/men with ASD's. Good read and VERY helpful!

This book outlines pretty much every problem that I've encountered. Additionally it provides information for how to actually deal with the development! Not only that, but it assumes that the reader has some idea of autism interventions, so we don't have to read about reinforcement schedules and discrimination training again!The authors also have spiced in some humor, which is nice, since we all need some laughter in our lives!

This is a good book for someone who is looking for stories and examples or mild to lower functioning ASD - I felt like for my daughter who's high functioning and twice gifted this has nothing that was helpful. Even if my child was lower functioning I feel like this was more of stories that were depressing and not actually helpful in teaching the parent how to handle situations.This book has been recommended by several therapist and psychologists but like I said I personally didn't find it helpful and felt like it was a bit more of stories vs helping me to understand what ASD is and how I can help my child through issues such as melt downs, periods, sex, personal hygiene ect

I bought this book to help my Autistic Step-Daughter navigate her pre-teen and teenage years. The author covered every single topic that I knew would need to be covered, and it was extremely well-written. Everything was written without getting bogged down in clinic terms (unlike every other book I have read on Autism). I highly recommend this book!

I could not set it down! Affirmed so much I have had questioned by family over the years and enlightened me as to my daughter's care for the future.This should be prescribed reading for all Doctors and parents of developmentally challenged children. My 28 y.old daughter was diagnosed asautism spectrum until last year at her new " work" facility. It changed the perspectiveand approach to my daughter.

I like this book because it gives a lot of concrete examples/tips to try to help your daughter with many different aspects of real life issues. I would recommend this book.