Do Lemons Have Feathers? : More to Autism Than Meets the Eye

"Are you beginning to see past the disability and starting to appreciate the gift?" In this unashamedly honest book, David J. Burns draws on his own lived experience of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to provide guidance on how to take advantage of the supposed disadvantage. The book is filled with often hilarious anecdotes, spanning the confusion of his early diagnosis, to his marriage and life with his four children, as David proffers his advice on how to cope with everything from school work to flirting. Part memoir, part guide, and written with a refreshingly funny outlook, this book can be picked up and dipped into whether you're looking for encouragement, practical coping strategies, or a perspective of life as seen through the lens of ASD. Cynthia Kim explores all the quirkyness of living with Asperger Syndrome (ASD) in this accessible, witty and honest guide looking from an insider perspective at some of the most challenging and intractable aspects of being autistic. Her own life presents many rich examples. From being labelled nerdy and shy as an undiagnosed child to redefining herself when diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome as an adult, she describes how her perspective shifted to understanding a previously confusing world and combines this with the results of extensive research to explore the 'why' of ASD traits. She explains how they impact on everything from self-care to holding down a job and offers typically practical and creative strategies to help manage them, including a section on the vestibular, sensory and social benefits of martial arts for people with autism. Well known in the autism community and beyond for her popular blog, Musings of an Aspie, Cynthia Kim's book is rich with personal anecdotes and useful advice. This intelligent insider guide will help adults with ASDs and their partners, family members, friends, and colleagues, but it also provides a fresh and witty window onto a different worldview--Publisher's description Have you heard the one about the man who mistook a canary for a lemon? How about the book that tells you exactly what that joke has to do with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? Filled with personal insights, anecdotes, and practical advice, David Burns lets you know what can be achieved because of, and not in spite of, an ASD diagnosis. "Are you beginning to see past the disability and starting to appreciate the gift?"In this unashamedly honest book, David J. Burns draws on his own lived experience of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to provide guidance on how to take advantage of the supposed disadvantage. The book is filled with often hilarious anecdotes, spanning the confusion of his early diagnosis, to his marriage and life with his four children, as David proffers his advice on how to cope with everything from school work to flirting. Part memoir, part guide, and written with a refreshingly funny outlook, this book can be picked up and dipped into whether you're looking for encouragement, practical coping strategies, or a perspective of life as seen through the lens of ASD "Cynthia Kim shares all the quirkyness of living with Asperger Syndrome (ASD) in this accessible, witty and honest guide. From being labelled nerdy and shy as an undiagnosed child to redefining herself when diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome as an adult, she describes how her perspective shifted to understanding a previously largely incomprehensible world and combines this with extensive research to explore the 'why' of ASD traits. She explains how they impact on everything from self-care to holding down a job and offers typically practical and creative strategies to help manage them including a section on the benefits of martial arts for people with ASD. Packed full of personal anecdotes and useful advice, this humorous, insider guide will be of immeasurable value to recently diagnosed autistic adults and their partners and family members, carers and mental health professionals working with people with autism, and anyone exploring whether they may be on the spectrum."--Publisher description 'Being autistic, to me, means a lot of different things, but one of the best things is that I can be so happy, so enraptured about things no one else understands and so wrapped up in my own joy that, not only does it not matter that no one else shares it, but it can become contagious. This is the part about autism that I can never explain. This is the part I never want to lose.' Julia Bascom's depiction of the joy of autistic obsessions tells a story about autism that is very rarely told. It tells of a world beyond impairments and medical histories, where the multiples of seven can open a floodgate of untranslatable joy, where riding a train can make everything feel perfectly sized and full of light, and where flapping your hands just so amplifies everything you feel. The Obsessive Joy of Autism will resonate powerfully with other autistic people, and encourage those who have a person with autism in their lives to look out for that joy, to chase it, to get obsessed. A personal insight into a 25 year Asperger marriage. Funny and uplifting, with practical advice too. "I knew this guy was out of the square. He was so far out, he was in the hexagonal prism that was past the triangle next to the square."When the author met her future husband, she was instantly charmed by his intensity, wacky conversation choices, and innate desire to create peculiar names. Seventeen years, one wedding, one baby and several adopted names later, it began to dawn on 'Herscue' that family jokes about her husband having Asperger's Syndrome may be closer to the truth than she had first imagined. Filled with moving and hilarious tales, one of which provides the origins of the author and her husband's adopted names, Herscue and Jomphrey, and their even stranger pronunciations, this personal account grapples with the highs and lows of a 25 year marriage to an Aspie husband "I knew this guy was out of the square. He was so far out, he was in the hexagonal prism that was past the triangle next to the square." When the author met her future husband, she was instantly charmed by his intensity, wacky conversation choices, and innate desire to create peculiar names. Seventeen years, one wedding, one baby and several adopted names later, it began to dawn on 'Herscue' that family jokes about her husband having Asperger's Syndrome may be closer to the truth than she had first imagined. Filled with moving and hilarious tales, one of which provides the origins of the author and her husband's adopted names, Herscue and Jomphrey, and their even stranger pronunciations, this personal account grapples with the highs and lows of a 25 year marriage to an Aspie husband. Nerdy, shy, and socially inappropriate Growing up undiagnosed Navigating the social communication jungle A complicated relationship with relationships Parenting Aspie style Rigid and routine Sensory seeking and sensitivities The autistic body Exploring the emotional landscape Executive function : the brain's control center The dark side Redefining myself Arriving at acceptance. Based on research recorded in her popular blog, Cynthia Kim''s humorous, insider guide to Asperger Syndrome (ASD) explores the ''why'' of ASD traits. Full of personal anecdotes, Kim explores how her perspective changed after diagnosis and offers strategies to help manage the quirks of ASD, including a section on the benefits of martial arts Have you heard the one about the man who mistook a canary for a lemon? How about the book that tells you exactly what that joke has to do with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? Filled with personal insights, anecdotes and practical advice, David J. Burns lets you know what can be achieved because of, and not in spite of, an ASD diagnosis H-E-R-S-C-U-E: pronounced like the high-pitched sound a dolphin makes with "eeer-keee" sandwiched in the middle. Being baptised Herscue by her Asperger's husband Jomphrey is just one of a collection of tales presented in this frank memoir on the ups, downs, and idiosyncrasies of an Aspie marriage. Julia Bascom shares a rare insight into the absolute joy of intense autistic obsessions and stimming. She explains why some experiences are so rich, vibrant, and all-consuming that they set her heart racing, shedding new light on an often-misunderstood aspect of autism "Cynthia Kim explores all the quirkiness of living with Asperger's Syndrome (ASD) in this accessible, witty and honest guide looking from an insider perspective at some of the most challenging and intractable aspects of being autistic."--Publisher