Asperger's Rules!: How to Make Sense of School and Friends - Softcover

Blythe Grossberg, PsyD, is a learning specialist in New York City who works to help children and adults with ADD to become more effective at school and at work.

Grossberg provides an upbeat and supportive guide for readers with Asperger s, covering feelings and emotions, teachers, asking for help, and dealing with bullies...The invaluable advice should help readers navigate new challenges. --Publishers Weekly

This manual-workbook offers insights to readers with mild spectrum disorders on the general unwritten rules for dealing with teachers and classmates in school. With a mix of common scenarios, dialogue trees, bulleted lists, multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank self-tests, and brief analytical comments, Grossberg covers setting goals, demonstrating appropriate responses to behavioral or emotional triggers, using communication strategies, recognizing body language and other signals, coping with bullying, making friends, and (in a perfunctory, tacked-on final chapter) establishing personal hygiene and healthy life habits. Capped by a select set of annotated print and online resources, these guidelines and procedures will be helpful to their target audience though the frequent write-in features make the volume more suitable for individual than library use. --Booklist

As a clinical psychologist who works with middle- and high-school students diagnosed with Asperger s syndrome, Grossberg has the background and expertise to give advice on how to negotiate the world of the neurotypcial. The advice is straightforward, easy to understand, and solid. Each chapter includes a short test to help readers understand the importance of the material. The short quiz at the start of each chapter clues readers in to how they should relate to the upcoming information. The book includes sample dialogues and opportunities for readers to practice what they are learning. While this book is written specifically for youngsters on the Asperger s spectrum, it will be helpful for any children who struggle with making and keeping friends, dealing with bullies, or understanding unwritten rules in the classroom. Some young people may prefer to read this on their own, while others could certainly benefit from sharing the volume in a group and/or with an adult helper. --Wendy Smith-D Arezzo, School Library Journal