Autism and Adolescence: What Teens and Adults Need to Know

by Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin draws on her own experience to deliver an essential guidebook for guiding and nurturing autistic youth. She gets to the REAL issues of autistic adolescents—the ones parents, teachers, and individuals on the spectrum face every day.

Topics include:

Strategies for non-verbal teensAutism and drivingPreparing for collegeAcquiring social skillsDeveloping talentsAnd much more!

In these helpful pages, Dr. Grandin offers do’s and don’ts, practical strategies, and try-it-now tips, all based on her insider perspective and extensive research. Interestingly, she argues that adolescents on the autism spectrum must focus on their overlooked strengths to foster their unique contributions to the world. She has packed a wealth of knowledge into this book, which serves as an excellent reference resource for the parents, educators and caregivers of autistic adolescents.

Rather than continuing to waste the singular gifts of autistics, driving a collective loss in productivity and innovation, Grandin proposes new approaches to educating, parenting, employing, and collaborating with them. In a highly competitive world, this important book helps us see, we need every mind on board.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mental Health, Autistic Spectrum Disorder

204 pages, Paperback

Published September 3, 2024

About the author

Mary Temple Grandin is an American academic and animal behaviorist. She is a prominent proponent of the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter and the author of more than 60 scientific papers on animal behavior. Grandin is a consultant to the livestock industry, where she offers advice on animal behavior, and is also an autism spokesperson.
Grandin is one of the first autistic people to document the insights she gained from her personal experiences with autism. She is a faculty member with Animal Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University.
In 2010, Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, named her in the "Heroes" category. She was the subject of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning biographical film Temple Grandin. Grandin has been an outspoken proponent of autism rights and neurodiversity movements.

Reviews

[Audra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Please note the title: Autism and Adolescence: The Way I See It. This is very much a collection of the author’s opinions and experiences on a variety of topics connected to autism. On the one hand, I really appreciate how direct this book. Each section is short with bold titles. It covers a wide variety of topics but also is direct and to the point. Many topics will include recommendations for other resources if you want additional information. You could easily read the sections that may apply to you and not focus on the ones that don’t.

On the other hand, this is often based on opinion or personal recollections. Even outside this book, I find parenting advice from someone in their seventies to be judgemental and not understanding the realities of raising a child in 2024. Things could not have been as easy or orderly or rosy as remembered 60 years later. And even if it was, the world is much different now. The author circles back many times to the opinion that children today are not being taught proper life skills like they were decades ago.

Similarly this book was comparing the experience of going to college in the 1960s to college today. I’m sorry but this is not realistic. I feel like my experience 20 years ago is hardly relevant to realities today. I’m really glad those strategies worked at that time but I find myself enraged by this type of advice.

Overall, an interesting book. Some points were insightful. Some missed the mark. The entire second half made me angry. I’m going to keep reading thru my big stack of library books on this subject and see if there are some better fits.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical and realistic, from someone who has lived and learned. I appreciate that!

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Temple Grandin changed the world and perceptions about autism. Her fearless truth-telling and unmasked opinions have made a lot of people question the status-quo on autism and seek deeper answers. In every book of hers I've read, she's interlaced her own experiences with research and discussions of current practices. This book is no different and she highlights what she did as a teen, specifically that she had to learn skills to survive. Topics brought up are nutrition, pharmaceutical support, exercise, work, emotions, and self-esteem. She is quite opposed to autism parenting wherein the parents do everything for their children out of protection. There's a lot of good advice mixed in with her stories, even advice couched in her experiences. Her own freedom enabled her to figure out how to use tools and how to get hard work done.

Compared to some of her other works, this book is light on take-aways. Perhaps this is more so for me as I've researched autism for years, and there wasn't really anything I found profound within the pages. However, if you as a parent or teen have questions and want to know about one woman's experiences, then this is a good read.

The section that disappointed me was teens and driving. I had hoped for a little more depth and with the discussion, perhaps highlighting anxiety and how to teach decision-making with driving, but the essence was start very slow with one skill at a time, don't push it, and eventually it can work.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Autism and Adolescence: The Way I See It: What Teens and Adults Need to Know by Dr. Temple Grandin (Future Horizons 2024) (616.85882) (4074).

This is a guide written by an autistic author and educator specifically for the parents and educators of autistic kids. It is essentially a behavioral guide for autistic children and their caregivers on the topic of how to teach autistic adolescents to interact with the non-autistic world and its inhabitants.

Her first rule for autistic adolescents: don’t be rude. She referred to an autistic individual at a conference she attended who demonstrated that he knew how to behave politely but sometimes chose not to do so:

“What was most distressing to me was that these individuals felt that because they had autism, the people around them should accept their rude behavior - that their "disability" made them somehow exempt from all social standards we all live by. Like it or not, social boundaries exist, and we are expected to learn a few basic social skills.” (p.18).

That’s a hard first lesson, but learning this is probably the first 90% of the battle. Temple Grandin is a fascinating individual.

My rating: 7/10, finished 7/23/25 (4074).

[Brigite · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a speech-language pathologist, primarily working with the autistic community, I try to read one or two books a year that are written by autistic people to learn better ways to support my clients in therapy.

However, I didn’t enjoy this book at all. I feel as though the author felt like the way she was raised is the “correct way.” As we know, autism is a spectrum. If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism. As such, every autistic person has different needs. What may work for one autistic individual may not work for the other. I also didn’t like some of the language she used to describe autistic individuals, implying that they’re “rude” or have “bad manners.” Disappointed by this book.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you go into this expecting a neurotypically edited book, you'll be frustrated. Several anecdotes get repeated more than once, and it can sometimes read like stream of consciousness. The editors mostly allowed Ms Grandin to sound like herself. This is a great refresher for those of us who've been aware of our child's autism awhile and need a refresher that's geared towards the next stage of life. So many books focus on the preschool years; it's nice to have some blunt words about the teenage and young adult years.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was as if someone did a recorded interview with Temple Grandin on her opinions of autism and adolescence and tried to edit it (poorly) into a book format. Sentences were repeated verbatim in multiple different chapters. Titles and chapter headings had type-os. And there was a lot of "should" interjected that I didn't find helpful. For example, "parents of autistic kids should teach them manners."

[Katherine Molina · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book

Another informative book by Temple of Grandin. After reading her books I always come away with helpful information and feeling encouraged that my incredible grandchild has a chance to have a happy and fulfilling life. One with challenges but many opportunities. Thanks again Temple Grandin.

[Chris Givler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for understanding autism from the inside, since Temple Grandin and herself has autism. No, the writing is not the best literary writing, but that's not the point. Dr Temple Grandin gives important information that non-autistic people need to know.

[Jessica Strong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good advice but nothing novel. A good reflection of Temple's perceptions and experiences

[Nick Salenga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book that shows why world needs every kind of mind.