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While autism is becoming better understood by educators, counsellors, and others who provide support for people on the autism spectrum, experts know that autism itself presents unique challenges and opportunities when it manifests in girls and women, from creating healthy relationships as an adolescent to navigating work and motherhood as an adult.
This month, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Library offers a selection of resources exploring autism in girls and women, including personal narratives, chapters from professional texts, and excerpts from self-development guides.
Challenges become easier to navigate once we discover that we share them with others. In Spectrum Women: Walking to the Beat of Autism, author Barb Cook and 14 other autistic women describe life from a female perspective and present empowering, helpful and supportive insights from their personal experience.
In this provided chapter, autistic writer and editor Maura Campbell recounts her experience seeking and receiving a diagnosis, along the way addressing issues including why fewer women are diagnosed than men, the myths and stereotypes often associated with autism, and how disclosing her own diagnosis helped her connect with other women in the autism community.
Evidence shows that roughly 40 percent of individuals on the autism spectrum will suffer from high levels of anxiety (Van Steensel, Bögels and Perrin 2011). How does that in turn shape the experiences of girls and young women with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)?
In this sample chapter from A Guide to Mental Health Issues in Girls and Young Women on the Autism Spectrum, author Dr. Judy Eaton examines the influences of anxiety and depression through the lens of psychopathology, calling attention to the unique ways girls and women with autism experience them.
Autistic girls can be frequently misunderstood, underestimated, and therefore anxious in a school environment. In her dynamic book Supporting Spectacular Girls: A Practical Guide To Developing Autistic Girls’ Well-Being And Self-Esteem, author Helen Clarke offers a life skills curriculum for autistic girls 11-15, with a focus on strengthening skills for healthy experiences in all aspects of life.
Read this chapter in which Clarke explores how healthy communicating and expressing feelings can help autistic girls improve their wellbeing.
Neurodivergent people often have different communication styles that may be unfamiliar to neurotypical people, such as differences in eye contact, interpreting non-verbal cues, or conversation patterns. Communication and the cultivation of social relationships is one of the topics Sarah Hendricks considers in her book Women and Girls on the Autism Spectrum: Understanding Life Experiences from Early Childhood to Old Age, an examination of how autism presents itself in different facets of life from younger to older ages.
This provided chapter offers guidance for professionals who support girls and women in their lifelong journey of forging relationships with other neurotypical and neurodiverse people.
Being an autistic parent can come with both challenges and benefits. In Spectrum Women: Autism and Parenting, three mothers reflect on their experiences growing up as undiagnosed autistics, venturing into and embracing motherhood, and connecting with their children in a unique and powerful way.
In this sample chapter, Renata Jurkevythz, Maura Campbell, and Lisa Morgan share their motherhood journeys, both before and after their own autism diagnoses, describing how their experiences ultimately strengthened their ability to be healthy and committed parents to their children.
While adolescence is a difficult life stage for everyone, today’s teenagers grapple with a range of unique challenges as their minds and bodies change. From navigating social anxiety in a post-pandemic world to protecting self-esteem in our age of technology, teens require new coping techniques and strategies to maintain positive mental health.
This month, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Library presents a selection of resources offering insights and guidance for both teens and the adults who support them. Scroll down to explore a sampling from the Jessica Kingsley Mental Health and Counselling collection: self-development guides, chapters from professional texts, and testimonials that can empower young people as they tackle challenges and strengthen their mental health.
Anxiety is a normal human emotion that many people face. Helping young people understand the ins and outs of their own anxiety can empower them to navigate anxiety-inducing factors more effectively and gain self-confidence. My Anxiety Handbook: Getting Back on Track is a straightforward guide with practical advice for teens that helps reduce feelings of anxiety, including stories from young people who have managed their own symptoms successfully.
This sample chapter offers teens empathetic and practical advice for tackling anxiety using a cognitive behavioural approach.
While panic is a common feeling, it can be particularly debilitating to teenagers facing the challenges of adolescence. In Free from Panic: A Teens Guide to Coping with Panic Attacks and Panic Symptoms, clinical psychologists Monka Parkinson, Kerstin Thirlwall, and Lucy Willets offer advice for teens struggling with panic symptoms or panic disorder using strategies from CBT, ACT, and CFT.
This sample chapter helps teen readers recognize that feelings of panic are normal, using accessible language to help understand the panic experience in the context of three biological brain systems: primitive, limbic, and neocortex.
Questioning one’s appearance can be a rite of adolescent passage, but body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) can turn self-scrutiny into a debilitating condition. Appearance Anxiety: A Guide to Understanding Body Dysmorphic Disorder for Young People, Families and Professionals is the first book for teens and adults that explains the causes and impact of BDD. With personal accounts and artwork from young people as well as professional advice on treatment, this resource can help increase awareness, provide solidarity for people with BDD, and alert others to key signs and symptoms.
Read this sample chapter, which focuses on the role the internet and social media play in BDD.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a potentially life-long debilitating disorder, which often emerges during teenage years and affects as many as 1 in every 50 people. Breaking Free from OCD: A CBT Guide for Young People and Their Families, presents a step-by-step guide for adolescents with OCD and their familes, which can used in home treatment or as a self-help resource.
In this provided chapter, authors and leading experts Jo Derisley, Isobel Heyman, Sarah Robinson, and Cynthia Turner help readers of all ages better understand OCD using both clear terms and real-life testimonials from teenagers.
With the right tools, teens and young adults can take ownership of their mental health. Sarah Rawsthorn’s ground-breaking book Mind Mechanics for Teens and Young Adults offers the perfect resource for counselors and educators to help empower young people. With more than 30 years of experience in the field of neurodiversity and social, emotional and mental health, Rawsthorn offers a comprehensive slate of lessons, activities, and games that can be used with individuals or integrated in a schoolwide mental health program.
Read this provided chapter for an overview of mental health disorders addressed in Mind Mechanics.
What does an inclusive classroom look like? Just a few simple principles can help teachers transform learning environments into spaces where students respect difference, empathize with others, and gain the tools they need to be socially responsible adults.
This month, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Library presents resources from today’s top experts discussing key components of an inclusive classroom, on topics that include the importance of nurturing consent culture, implementing restorative practices, fostering race equality, and more. Scroll down to discover professional texts, development guides, and lesson plans that can help teachers create inclusive learning spaces and support student growth.
Consent means more than just receiving permission to do or say something; a culture of consent is one in which agreement is found through respect and compromise, an important element of an inclusive classroom. In Creating Consent Culture: A Handbook for Educators, authors and consent educators Marcia Baczynski and Erica Scott draw on more than 25 years of combined experience to challenge common assumptions about consent, and help teachers transform the dynamic of their classrooms.
In this sample chapter, Baczynski and Scott differentiate between consent and coercion, illustrating how a classroom consent culture can help prepare children to become caring and responsible adults.
Trauma-informed, strengths-based classrooms are built upon three core aims: to support children as they build their self-regulatory capacities, to build a sense of relatedness and belonging at school, and to integrate wellbeing principles that nurture growth and identify strengths. In their book Creating Trauma-Informed, Strengths-Based Classrooms: Teacher Strategies for Nurturing Students’ Healing, Growth, and Learning, education experts Tom Brunzell and Jacolyn Norrish present case studies, learning points and strategies for helping the most vulnerable students build their resilience, increase their motivation, and fulfill their learning potential.
Read this chapter, in which Brunzell and Norrish address proactive, preemptive approaches to creating trauma-informed, strengths-based learning spaces at both the classroom and whole school level.
Schools that embrace restorative practices ultimately see results through increased student engagement, stronger social-emotional skills, and a healthier learning environment for all students. Implementing Restorative Practice in Schools offers educators evidence-based explanations of how classrooms and schools can become truly restorative, as well as why such environments are vital to a child’s development.
In this chapter, experts Margaret Thorsborne and Peta Blood explain why schools adopt restorative practices, how those practices can improve better teaching and learning, and how they can contribute to inclusive spaces and social-emotional development.
Young people develop their value systems during their school years, offering the perfect window of opportunity for educators to challenge prejudice and promote race equality. More Than Words is a comprehensive guide for educators to look beyond addressing individual racism-fueled incidents and instead create safe, inclusive, and supportive environments for all young people.
In this provided chapter, authors Sarah Soyei and Kate Hollinshead offer techniques for embedding race equality into everyday teaching practices.
Building an inclusive classroom requires educators to teach children empathy and provide them with tools to both learn from and support each other. In their book A School for Everyone: Stories and Lesson Plans to Teach Inclusivity and Social Issues, Ffion Jones, Helen Cowie, and Harriet Tenenbaum provide 16 stories told from different perspectives covering social and emotional concerns around far-reaching issues including refugees, disability, gender diversity, and climate change. Each story is accompanied by a fact file, a set of interactive activities, lesson plans, and a bank of resources to further enhance understanding.
Read this sample story and teaching kit about how children can better understand cyberbullying, both to support classmates on the receiving end and eliminate it from their school.
