Abstract

Expelled from mainstream education and vaguely aware she has something called 'Asparagus' Syndrome, 12-year-old Jessica is sent away to a residential school for young people with autism. Here, at first miserable and misunderstood, she spends the next five years trying to cope with the strict school system - fighting against misguided teacher interventions, dealing with the onset of adolescence and fitting in with the other pupils. Recalling her school years with humour and insight, Jessica takes the reader right inside what it feels like to have AS. Her account will open the eyes of readers to the difficulties, and the rewards, of this condition.
Jessica Peers was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome at 12 years old and spent the rest of her education in a residential school for young people with autism. After achieving an M.A. in English Literature, she is now a voluntary researcher at the Autism Research Unit (University of Sunderland) and writes in her spare time.
Diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at 12 and sent away to a residential school for young people with autism, this is the tale of the next 5 years of her life, the characters she meets, the emotional struggles she faces, and her rebellion against a misguided and inflexible system.
Asperger Information.net
Child psychiatry trainees and child psychiatrists will find that this book helps them understand the difficulties of a patient with Asperger's Disorder, and fleshes out the sterile clinical descriptions of the DSM IV. Parents of youth with this disorder may gain more appreciation of the subtle but extremely incapacitating attributes of their adolescent, a youngster who sometimes seems normal, at others frustrating and inexplicable. Patients may find meaning and hope in Jessica's progress.
The Canadian Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Review