Description
Part I: What is Autism? Chapter 1: Historical Background Chapter 2: Current Concept and Definition Chapter 3: The Fuller Picture: Shared Characteristics Chapter 4: The Fuller Picture: Sources of Diversity Chapter 5: Facts and Figures: Epidemiology and Lifespan Development Part II: What Causes Autism? Chapter 6: A Framework for Explaining Autism Chapter 7: Root Causes Chapter 8: Brain Bases Chapter 9: Proximal Causes 1: Diagnostic Behaviours Chapter 10: Proximal Causes 2: Additional Shared Characteristics and Major Specifiers Part III: Practical Issues Chapter 11: Assessment, Diagnosis and Screening Chapter 12: Intervention Chapter 13: Care
Jill Boucher is Professor of Developmental Psychology at City University in London. Initially she trained and worked as a speech and language therapist. Within a few years, however, the need to better understand the brain, and those malfunctions of the brain that cause communication and language impairments, led her to retrain and pursue an academic career as a neuropsychologist. After some years teaching and researching at the University of Warwick, she moved to Sheffield University to supervise an existing vocational course for speech and language therapists. She subsequently played a critical role in developing a multi-disciplinary Department of Human Communication Sciences at Sheffield, where research and practice are equally valued, and mutually beneficial. The conviction that practitioners and researchers must work collaboratively to improve the lives of people with ASD, and to help families and others who support and provide for them, informs the approach taken in the present book.