Understanding Autism in Adults and Aging Adults 2nd Edition: Updated in 2021 with New Insights for Improving Diagnosis and Quality of Life

by Theresa Regan, Janet Angelo (Editor)

NEW EDITION 2021 with updated research, additional insight and strategies for communication, information about autism in special populations (such as the gender diverse, those with problematic internet use and gaming addictions, females, and more), and a new chapter on aging and dementia.

Autism is a childhood condition ... right? Not right. Children with autism grow into adults with autism. The great strides we have made in understanding childhood autistic behaviors and interventions have lagged dramatically behind the needs of aging autistics. What of the young adult trying to build relationships? What of the middle-aged autistic adult who has been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and lacks an effective treatment plan? What of the aging adult who is showing increasingly rigid autistic behaviors and is misdiagnosed as having frontotemporal dementia? Understanding Autism in Adults and Aging Adults 2nd Edition is a one-of-a-kind resource designed to improve the correct diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in adults. Filled with clinical stories that bring to life the concepts discussed, the book provides strategy-based interventions to address issues of personal and household management, medical care, communication, sensory processing symptoms, and emotional and behavioral regulation.

Genres: Nonfiction, Autistic Spectrum Disorder

222 pages, Hardcover

Published March 5, 2022

About the author

Theresa Regan was born in the metro Detroit area in Michigan. She has a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Wayne State University and specializes in Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation Psychology. She is a Neuropsychologist at the Illinois Neurological Institute at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in central Illinois.

Theresa and her husband Patrick have a son in the autistic spectrum. Her experiences working at a medical center, interacting with other parents in her community, and raising her son inspired her to write Soul Cries.

Reviews

[Sol Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Understanding Autism in Adults and Aging Adults
by Theresa Regan

This is not a bad book, not at all, but I feel like the value is difficult to quantify. ASD is such a broad diagnosis that this book can read like a list of unrelated, wildly different anecdotes with little common ground to connect them. This isn’t the authors fault, and no doubt she is an expert and has really done well in the research. It’s just that you would really have to comb through and pull out particular information to apply this to any one situation.

Diagnosis is messy and has way too many problems in our health system, as it is, but I couldn’t help but imagine how many different classifications there should be if one were to want to reference anything specific. Really, more than anything, ASD seems like a classification of a degree to which someone doesn’t properly fit in. Rough stuff.

[Julio Leroux · Rating 5 out of 5]

autismo

Excelente libro, me ha ayudado a comprender, aceptar y sobretodo porque me pasan y me pasaron muchas cosas que no entendía. A vivir en paz conmigo mismo.

[Remar Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read and insight into ASD

I really enjoyed this book. It has a lot of great new information about ASD and how it effects adults.

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

The book talks about misdiagnosis. the good news is that it explains what autism & that it has to do with sensory stuff. the bad news is that it doesn't also include the eugenicist history of the research centering nazis & who should be killed among white boys. it doesn't mention supportive research from soviet scientists in the 1920's neither. this is kind of important since the history of DSM categories is explained to help case workers understand how under diagnosis & a lack of support happened, as well as generation gaps.

also the jigsaw art on the 2 editions is creepy, but i've heard that the cover art is done by a separate specialist. seriously a eugenicist hate group uses that imagery, even though the info in the book contradicts their shit.

so motivation is related to how the brain works, not just money or life or death. this book is a lot of lists, and so i'd prefer to get a text copy of the 2nd edition to reference back to since i used an audiobook to read this book.

i will say the case studies involved people with money, houses, abilities to navigate the college process. i do think this comes down to survivors bias, but it does suck how much privilege was needed to get on the radar.

basically, people be like autism is a spectrum or has many spectrums in it, and i wish we could have something like a gender unicorn for organizing this sort of thing. that being said, this book lists a bunch of traits & situations about why the neurotype of autism is a thing, and so if i ever have the spoons to get a sort of gender unicorn set-up for the autism spectrum, then i would likely refer to this book. that's why i give this book such a high rating even though there's still a lot of survivors' bias favoring the privileged.

[Stephanie Surls · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not written by an autistic person, and she did not write it to the autistic person. I guess this could be for family and friends that know nothing about autism. I only found three things I didn't know. I scanned through most of the book. I also found that it didn't really address those who are able to chameleon really well in society. I don't know if she doesn't believe that there are those who can, or if she only dealt with those with more issues navigating society's norms. I think it's best to read books about autism that are written by autistic people. You'll get a better understanding.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful book, though the audience seems to be psychologists and the like. As a doc myself, I enjoyed reading through case studies to learn how the autistic person was diagnosed or helped, simply because a doctor (Regan) who understands autism became involved with the patient. Learning as an adult that I am on the spectrum, I found many things in this book useful. That said, I needed to skim over parts that were not relevant for me or my autistic children (yet?), as they were related to autism in folks more aged than myself. Onward to my next book on autism in my learning journey...

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The authors focus on well-known and strongly autistic examples and don't go into masking or any other issues which make diagnosis difficult. The examples are all of typical, obvious tendencies. Basically, not helpful at all for auDHD or atypical symptoms.

[Becky L Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook. Informative. Good examples. I would venture to say this is a good start if you're looking to research more about adult autism. No false advertising here.

[Michelle Rimme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutly amazing book. I'm going to read it again. A great book to understand how autism is shown in adults.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astounding information.

[Michelle Zak-Strzalka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best and most richly packed book on ASD I have read thus far. Much more informational and practical than all the best-selling ASD books out there.

[Aliki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative.