3 Must Read Books for Autism Mamas
Hi, my name is Carrie and I love to read. Really, I do.
I honestly can’t remember a time that grabbing a book and slipping away into another world didn’t only relax me, but also, truly excited me.
Yes, I’m a nerd through and through; I’d much rather spend my weekend evenings cozied up in a chair with a glass of red wine, or tea depending on my mood, and a nice chunky book, than out in the world with my fellow peeps.
I am a huge Tolkien buff and finally took my appreciation/crazy obsession with his work to a new level this past spring when I added a permanent tribute to his works to my left forearm.
That background information may seem random, and possibly is, but it helps what I’m about to tell you seem much less crazy. Hopefully. When I was at a loss with our youngest, I turned to reading.
However, instead of reading fiction and relaxing, my jam, I was in constant learning mode.
I wasn’t sure exactly what we were dealing with… but I knew the problems we were fighting each day were so unique, none of my friends or family could offer any useful advice. Those in our circle couldn’t relate to any of our experiences, or daily trials, and it was getting harder and harder to confide in them as I continued to get brush off responses or looks full of pity.
I knew in the pit of my “mom-gut” that these things we were struggling with were not just a phase. This was something new, some uncharted, and just completely unexpected territory that I was so frightened by, so I equipped myself with my best weapon: books.
After some light research, I’d already narrowed down the ramblings in my head to a few possibilities that I was eager to explore in more depth… SPD (sensory processing disorder), and Autism (ASD) were at the top of my list.
Of all the things we struggled with on the daily, those two diagnosis seemed the most relatable.
Talk about putting your Amazon Prime account to good use. I read review after review. I wanted to learn more about these two specific diagnosis and others experiences with and finally narrowed down the list of books in my cart to just under twenty.
I told you I liked to read, ha!
Mind you, there are plenty of books out there on Autism these days, but I wanted something on the more current end, and wanted the best & most helpful ones possible. I was really obsessive when it came to picking them out. I read pretty much every review for every book before purchase and of course, read each book, when they arrived, myself.
All 18 of them.
I’d love to tell you that was it. That I read all 18 of those books and found all the answers I was searching for, so I was able to breathe a sigh of relief and move back to my fun assortment.
But it turns out, curiously, that the farther you peek into the rabbit hole, the farther you fall. The farther you fall, the more questions you have and your investigation continues.
I can’t remember the last time I read a book for fun. My nightstand has been littered with books on ASD, and self improvement ever since.
I never will have all of the answers. None of us will. But, I can tell you with all of these books under my belt, which ones I’d recommend.
Some were insanely helpful, giving me a fresh wind under my wings and a feeling of camaraderie, that sense of ‘me too’ to hold onto and give me fire.
Conversely, others were so flat that I had to re-read pages multiple times just to forcibly absorb the information they offered. It was worse than school because I wanted to learn what they had to offer me, but the writing was so hard to decipher.
Now, do not get me wrong; I’m not slighting any of the books that I read, they all helped me in some way. However, I’d of loved it if someone had of taken my hand as I sat there narrowing down my Amazon cart and said,
“Hey mama, you don’t have all the answers and you never will; but if you’re open to learning, and growing, to help make this family life that you have better for all of you, to help Wyatt live his best life and to know that you’re not completely alone in this battle you’re fighting - read these three. They will make you laugh, they will make you cry, and they will teach you and encourage you. Then you can implement what you learned and move forward.”
So with that dream in mind, these are the three books that I’d suggest to anyone who wants to begin to wrap their minds around autism. Whether you’re a parent of a child recently diagnosed (or wondering if that’s an avenue you might need/desire to pursue), or better yet, even just a friend or family member of an autistic babe, pick up these and add them to your reading list.
1) Differently Wired - by Deborah Reber
2) Autism Everyday - by Alyson Beytien
3) Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism - by Barry Prizant
I've included a link to my Amazon Idea List "Autism Friendly Life" for you below. You will find each of these books here as well as items that I've found helpful over the years.
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