Puberty:A guide for teenagers with an Autism Spectrum Disorder and their parents
The aim of this booklet is to provide a resource for both young people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families, which addresses the three main areas of development during puberty: physical changes (including separate sections for both males and females), emotional changes (including mood changes, anger and aggression, and self-esteem), and social changes (including forming and maintaining platonic, romantic and sexual relationships).
The resource is divided into both sections aimed at the individual with an ASD (which are presented using documented effective teaching techniques for people with an ASD, such as visual material and situation specific teaching techniques), and sections specifically at parents of people with an ASD (containing education regarding the potential impact of puberty on the adolescent with an ASD, strategies for facilitating communication, and instructions on how to create and use visual resources and situation specific teaching techniques tailored to the individual).
This resource is designed to meet the intellectual capacity and learning style of young people with an ASD who have an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 70 and above who possess intentional communication skills.
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Acknowledgements
This booklet was researched and compiled by five final year Speech Pathology students (Sara Beeching, Megan Blumberg, Samantha Clayton, Elizabeth Ford and Gaby Ptasnik).
The project was completed under the supervision of Dr Diane Jacobs at La Trobe University, School of Human Communication Sciences, Melbourne Australia.
