Foreword -- Social functioning -- Insights into autistic social problems -- A few basic social skills are essential -- The need to be perfect -- Learning social rules -- Emotional differences among individuals with autism -- Healthy self-esteem -- Four cornerstones of social awareness -- Medications & biomedical issues -- Alternative versus conventional medicine -- Autism medical update -- Medication usage: risk versus benefit decisions -- My treatment for ringing in the ears -- Cognition and brain research -- Understanding nonverbal autism -- A social teenager trapped inside -- Understanding the mind of a nonverbal person with autism -- Tito lives in a world of sensory scrambling -- Adult issues & employment -- Improving time-management and organizational skills -- Employment advice: tips for getting and holding a job -- Teens with autism must learn both social and work skills to keep jobs -- Happy people on the autism spectrum have satisfying jobs or hobbies -- Inside or outside? the autism culture -- Portfolios can open job and college opportunities -- Going to college: tips for people with autism -- Finding mentors and appropriate colleges -- Reasonable accommodations for individuals on the autism spectrum -- Get out and experience life! -- Can my adolescent drive a car? -- Innovative thinking paves the way for AS career success -- Try on careers -- The link between autism genetics and genius -- My sense of self-identity

"Dr. Temple Grandin draws on her hard-won experience to deliver an essential guidebook for guiding and nurturing autistic youth. She gets to the real issues of autistic adolescents--the ones parents, teachers, and individuals on the spectrum face every day."--