Our Journey Through High Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome

Most books about autism deal with the condition as a whole. But autism affects those on different parts of the spectrum in very different ways. This book focuses on Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism (if there is a difference) and the problems specific to it.

Our Journey Through High Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome is written both by parents and those with Asperger syndrome, people who have direct experience of the ways autism affects their lives. For some reason the book comes with three introductions. Linda Andron's begins with a lot of waffling about the metaphor of a journey and a roadmap, labouring the point quite a lot. This isn't the kind of book that sets out a list of problems and potential solutions, or a set of therapies to follow. There may be some useful ideas and advice, but that's largely incidental to the main purpose of this book, which is to explain what it's like to have Asperger Syndrome. It's a message to people who are going through this that they are not alone, other people have similar experiences.

A good variety of voices come through in the writing, but the whole book tends to read like a collection of anecdotes and it seems somewhat disconnected in places. However there are some good strategies for coping with communication difficulties. Jeannette Darlington made cartoons for her sons in order to illustrate various events and social situations, visual aids which made communication easier for them. One of the major problems for those with Asperger syndrome is that their normal appearance and apparently normal intelligence most outsiders underestimate the problems that they face. Max Lisser and his mother prepared a booklet for his schoolfriends setting out just what difficulties he faces and how they could help him to overcome them. The booklet is included in Our Journey ..., and it might be a useful template to follow.

Linda Andron writes about the myth of social skills, and why it is difficult to simply teach a set of rules that can be followed in all social situations. In the chapter "One Best Friend", Ruth Mandernach quotes Daniel Bell's The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society: So the problems faced by those with Asperger syndrome are not insignificant. Although different to the difficulties of classic autism they are still likely to affect a large portion of anyone's life.

Ruth and Josh Mandernach recount their experience of the friendship of two boys who share the same diagnosis. So often we are urged to encourage those with Asperger syndrome to socialise with "normal", undiagnosed friends. It's refreshing to have someone advocate relationships between AS people. After all, they are likely to understand each other better than anyone else.

Our Journey Through High Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome is a brief look at Asperger syndrome and high functioning autism which will appeal most to parents, professionals and older autistics who are new to this diagnosis. Illustrated with plenty of cartoons and photos, the general writing style is light and accessible. We're not looking at a radical new approach here, just a collection of experiences of a certain type of autism that will benefit anyone who is unfamiliar with what this particular diagnosis really means in practice.