Nurturing Your Autistic Young Person. A Parents Handbook to Supporting Newly Diagnosed Teens and Pre-Teens by Cathy Wassell
The teenage years can be a difficult time for teenagers and also for their parents and carers, with hormones raging, bodies changing, finding their self-identity, school and exams, fitting in with their peers, social norms, the list is endless, it can be quite challenging at the best of times add into the mix that they are neurodivergent, where they see and feel the world differently to their neurotypical peers and challenges go up to a whole another level! However there is now a handbook for parent/carers that is packed through with information and advice for parent/carers to help them steer, guide and support their autistic teenagers through their teenager years!
Cathy Wassell is a neurodivergent mum with two teenagers who are both diagnosed neurodivergent. She is CEO of Autistic Girls Network charity, which supports autistic girls and their families and campaigns for earlier diagnosis and support. Please note that this book is not just for teenage girls it is for all genders, there is even a short section on LGBTQIA+
Cathy certainly has got the lived experience for writing this handbook for parents. This book was first published in 2023, it is very up-to-date with all the latest terminology, services and support that is in Great Britain, she also lightly touches on services in the USA too!
Nurturing Your Autistic Young Person has 15 chapters which are divided in to three parts, Part one: is What is Autism? Part 2: Living a Happy Autistic Life and Part 3 Diagnosis and beyond. Cathy covers everything about what you need to know about autism into these chapters from sensory issues to life skills. The book is a handbook so you can earmark the chapters you need and dip in and out of it and you don’t necessarily need to read the book from beginning to the end.
What I like about the book is that Cathy keeps everything positive about neurodiversity and that having teenager/teenagers who are neurodivergent shouldn’t be seen as a challenge or a disorder. Her sections are short and to the point and easy to read. She has added in to the book real life case studies from both neurodivergent teenagers and also from parent/cares perspectives, the case study from Owen age 18 (page 215) where he writes about his experience of his mental health rings true with so many neurodivergent teenagers, to me it was very poignant. There are also some good illustrations in the book by Eliza Flicker. I am definitely going to be using the equations that Cathy uses in her book they are simple but effective:
Low demands = low sensory arousal environment = low anxiety
Uncertainty = anxiety
I also found interesting that Cathy did a Facebook survey on the Autistic Girls Network and found that that statistically girls when they are 11 in year 7 during February half term start that they really start to struggle to continue to mask and other co related conditions start to show.
The appendix at the end of the book has some good information for further knowledge. Cathy also recommends reading Avoiding Anxiety in Autistic Children by Dr Luke Beardon. (I’m already looking forward to reading this book next!)
The intended target audience for the book is for parents of older children and young people who were not diagnosed as autistic at an early age, but in my opinion the information and advice given by Cathy would be helpful to parents of younger autistic children too either diagnosed or self-diagnosed. Cathy states in the book that she would like more than parents and carers to read this book she would love it if professionals such as GP’s, Mental Health Workers, Teachers (especially SENDCo’s) and also extended family and friends to read her book too! The more people who read this book the more they are educated on how to support and embrace neurodiversity in a neurotypical world. I concur with Cathy Wassell and urge you to read it as like me you may learn something you didn’t already know about Autism!
