Autism - Empowerment
A u t is Empowe m rment
The Autism Detective
It’s 5 p.m. at Mission Not-So-Impossible headquarters. Detective team Kit and Scully receive their latest assignment.
Dear Reader,
NEW
In this story you are going to meet my owners, Kit and Scully. They are amateur detectives who love to solve different mysteries. You are invited to join them on their newest case and put your own detective skills into action.
7–12 years * £12.99 * May 2021 * HB
Sounds intriguing. Let’s get started right away!
* 32 full colour illustrations * ISBN: 9781787753044
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The Autism Detective
Investigating What Autism Means to You
Elaine Brownless Illustrated by Mai-Ann Burns
An autism brain interprets the world and other people differently. It processes sensory information and emotions differently, often more intensely.
Autistic people can really struggle too. Especially with communication and social interaction. BLAH, BLAH
“Dear Kit and Scully, your mission is to learn about
BANG!
autism. On this quest you will need to investigate the human brain and learn about diversity.” What do you know about autism? Whether you know a little or a lot, you are invited to explore your understanding of the autism spectrum and discover something new by joining detectives Scully and Kit on their investigation. As Scully and Kit interview six ordinary children, follow the clues and see if you can guess which of them are autistic. This book puts the spotlight on six children that openly talk
LOOK AT ME!
WOOF!
In situations when an autism brain receives too much information to process at once, it causes the person to experience overload, stress and anxiety. An autism brain can be capable of incredible levels of attention and perceive details that others miss. There are scientists, engineers, designers, artists, writers, musicians, teachers, parents and more who are on something called the autism spectrum.
One very important job of the brain is to filter and organize the incoming information that our senses receive. Our brain then decides what information we can ignore and what we should pay attention to. An autism brain can find this process difficult.
Hang on, I’m going to look up the autism spectrum. Autism sounds really interesting so far but there’s a lot to understand.
Autism was first officially identified and given its name in 1943 by a doctor named Leo Kanner. It was very poorly understood at the time and surprisingly there is still quite a lot of confusion, disagreement and misunderstanding. However, through scientific research and incredible real-life stories, people are now better at recognizing the strengths and advantages of autism. 15
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about their experiences at school and at home. By the end of the book, two children reveal what autism means to them. Read this alone or with an adult and learn about autism, diversity, how we are all unique and what we all share.
Clue Pages
We asked all the children to tell us about their hobbies and interests.
Jazeel
“Elaine has used her two hats - being a mum of an autistic child and a specialist ASD teacher - wonderfully, to create this original and fun book for children to learn about neurodiversity and Autism, while they embark on a mystery-solving detective adventure!” – Dr Glòria Durà-Vilà, NHS and Private Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, author of My Autism Book, The Amazing Autistic Brain and Me and my PDA.
. I have a cat-themed bedroom s in Reena collecting cat things and activitie I’m mad about cats; I love and Frisbee. I like to read, draw and do crafty I like cooking to play the piano and I have two cats called Jasper to watch TV. I’m learning my spare time. I also like and baking with my mum.
Grace I especially like frogs, bugs and in our garden. birds. My dad There is a pond has helped me build a wildlife , an insect hotel the birds and a total of twen area and plants that ty-one bees I once saw a hedg ehog, too. I like different species of bird have like. I put food out for reading books visited my back about nature. garden.
Jack bike and playing in the street games console, riding my I really like playing on my TV. I play rugby and go to to the cinema and watching with my friends. I like going and draw comics. I sometimes like to design a swimming club every week.
I’ve been doing some reading, Kit. Listen to this. An autism brain can be really good at noticing details and patterns, likes predictability and is brilliant at focussing on things of interest. An autism brain can be especially good at locking attention onto things of high interest and less good at pulling that attention away. People on the spectrum may find it incredibly difficult to concentrate on things they find boring but often become experts in things they find interesting. 22
I like to watch TV or play on my watching it. I’m in an under-e computer. I really love football: playing it and levens football club and every Saturday morning I usually play midfield and do training during ; we play the week. I like to ride go walking and climbing my bike and with my dad.
nding that clothes and prete like designing games on Lara and I especially and I like to play ing. ing and crafts, videos online, trampolin I love art, draw ner. I like watching TV and g, swimming and I’m a fashion desig p. I like listening to music, singin my phone or lapto
Patrick My favourite hobby is gaming; I play on my console every on my own but it’s better day. Sometimes I play playing online with friends. I like watching movies. I like looking after my dog; I take her for a walk every day and she sleeps on my bed. I sometimes play outside if the boys in my street call for me.
Ah, autistic people love routine! They might have fewer hobbies because they’re spending heaps of time doing the things that they enjoy the most.
An autism brain can struggle to think flexibly and problem-solve in new situations and find it hard to adjust when routines are broken. Sometimes autistic people have routines that are not obvious or necessary to others but they help the person to feel organized, in control and calm. 23
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