Yenn Purkis - The Awesome Autistic Go-To Guide: A Practical Handbook for Autistic Teens and Tweens

THE AWESOME AUTISTIC GO-TO GUIDE

A Practical Handbook for
Autistic Teens and Tweens

Yenn Purkis and Tanya Masterman

Illustrated by Glynn Masterman

Foreword by Dr Emma Goodall

Dr Emma Goodall

I wish that all books for young people were as helpful and informative as this practical handbook for autistic teens and tweens. When I realized that I learnt more easily when I was interested, I thought I was strange; some people thought I was lazy. But as an autistic adult I became fascinated with autism and have been researching autism for nearly 10 years, and I have learnt that our brains are organized in ways that mean we learn best when we are interested.

I have known and connected with the authors of this book in a number of different ways for nearly a decade. Both are committed to and passionate about helping other autistics live life and achieve their dreams, whether through mentoring, public speaking or writing.

This book will help autistic young people find and develop the confidence to be who they are and find strategies to help them live life with as little stress as possible and be the best autistic they can be. My passions are helping people to live the best life they can. A good life means having purpose and being connected, whether to other people or places or animals or music or something else, but always to self.

So, my tip for readers is to learn about yourself from the inside out. This book will be a great help, and, as it was written by autistic adults, it wont be making suggestions that dont make sense or wont be of any use!

Getting to know yourself really well sounds strange, but when you connect to and know your self really well, your interoception improves and you can manage your emotions and the world around you more easily. I love that I can now manage my emotions much better through practising interoception every day.

If you want to know more about interoception, have a look at my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/channel/UCyIovxevV3W2l2WXHDBkKxA

Dr Emma Goodall

Healthy Possibilities

www.healthypossibilities.net

Mindful Body Awareness
www.mindfulbodyawareness.com

Chapter 1

Hi! If youre autistic, this book is for you. We, the authors of this book, are autistic too. So are lots of other interesting people. This book is all about being autistic what it might feel like and some of the good things autistic people can do. It has some tips for managing tricky situations and reasons why being you can be totally awesome! This is your book for getting to know yourself and your autism. It has lots of useful information and fascinating facts about autism. There are some fun activities and places where you can write in your thoughts. You may already know some things about autism or you might not know much. Whichever way, this book will help you to understand more about who you are and what it means to be autistic.

In this book, you will see a few cartoons with stick figures. Some of the stick figures have heads with Au written in them. They represent autistic people. The stick figures with plain heads represent non-autistic people.

ACTIVITY: What do you think about autism?

You might have only just discovered you are autistic, or you may have known for some time. You probably have some thoughts about autism and being autistic. Write down up to 10 things that you think of when you think, see, or hear the word autism. There are no right or wrong answers just write down what comes into your mind.

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

People talk differently about autism. Some people say Im autistic, some say I have autism, Im on the spectrum or Im an autie, or something else. Its totally your choice how you talk about your autism and you. This book uses I am autistic, but it is up to you how you choose to describe yourself. It might take a while to work out how you want to talk about your autism. That is perfectly okay, and there is no rush. You can work it out in your own time.

People who are autistic often feel like they are different from other people. In fact, it is often true that they are. There are a lot of things autistic people do differently from people who are not autistic.

Some ways in which autistic people can be different are:

We are often very focused on what we are interested in. This can mean we know a LOT about the subject or subjects that we love. We really enjoy thinking about our interests and doing things related to them.