NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman with a Foreword by Oliver Sacks (http://stevesilberman.com/book/neurotribes/). Penguin Random House LLC 2015.
ISBN-13 9781583334676 | 978-1-58333-467-6 ISBN 158333467X | 1-58333-467-X
This past semester I have had a couple of students whose behavior I considered to be somewhat odd. Then I began noticing some other students, not in my classes, on campus who behaved in a similar fashion. They would not look you in the eyes and some of them would not speak when greeted. I began to wonder if they might be autistic. The only experience I had previously had with a person who I knew to be autistic was with the child of a fellow faculty member.
After thinking about these students a bit, I began to, as we all do now, search on the web for information. I then ran on a Fresh Air podcast with Steve Silberman (http://tinyurl.com/ha2cs6w). I immediately ordered the book and I learned much about the autism spectrum. Silberman covered the entire tangled history of autism including the various ego battles involved. I now have a much better understanding of this phenomenon and some ideas about how to interact with these possibly autistic students. I still do not know if they are autistic and I am certainly not going to ask them!
Silberman points out how much this condition can vary. There are really brilliant people who are autistic. One of the most well-know is Temple Grandin (http://templegrandin.com/) at Colorado State University. While others have very limited abilities. NeuroTribes was the first science book to win the Samuel Johnson Prize. It has also won a California Book Award and a Books for a Better Life Award. I think that every educator should read this book for a better understanding of autism.
