A “How-to Guide” for Understanding Persons With Asperger's Disorder for a “Neurotypical” World

Reviews the book, The complete guide to Asperger's syndrome by Tony Attwood (see record 2007-02540-000). In this book, Attwood has essentially taken his original text Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals, and updated and broadened it quite significantly. He states from the start that his goal is to include not just information that is useful to parents and professional readers about the diagnosis and treatment of Asperger's disorder but also information that will be relevant to persons with Asperger's disorder. With this new publication, Attwood has taken on the task of explaining a complex disorder in a user-friendly, consumer-appropriate manner. Overall, he has done so quite admirably. In fact, as someone used to reading the professional literature, as opposed to the consumer literature, about ASDs, I found myself taken by surprise at both the readability and the clear discussions that Attwood's book provides. Despite a few quibbles here and there with how research findings have been interpreted (i.e., a discussion about the risk for anorexia nervosa in girls with Asperger's disorder that fails to distinguish between possible differences in etiology and rationale for the symptoms and the suggestion that depression may be the first indication that someone may present with Asperger's disorder), I have discovered that I now have a ready recommendation to provide to parents and educators without many caveats about readability and helpfulness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)