A Regular Guy: Growing up with Autism. This item is unavailable.A Regular Guy: Growing up with Autism

Synopsis A Regular Guy: Growing Up With Autism is a memoir about life with an autistic son, Matthew, written from his mother’s perspective. It answers the many questions that people have about autism through the story of Matthew’s life spanning from babyhood to young adulthood. A Regular Guy illustrates the many ways in which family, friends and strangers are touched by Matthew’s desperate desire to be a regular guy, and how his brutal honesty and social awkwardness bring out the best and worst in people in touching and humorous ways. In turn, A Regular Guy leads readers to love and accept Matthew, quirks and all, and inspires them to understand and tolerate the differences in others. One out of one hundred sixty six children are diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder every year, and yet public confusion about it is rampant. A Regular Guy: Growing Up With Autism is a source of hope and inspiration for those dealing with autism, and answers questions for an audience hungry for information about the prevalent and confounding disorder.

LAURA SHUMAKER is a regular contributor to NPR Perspectives and a columnist for The Autism Perspective. Her essays have appeared in the Autism Advocate, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Contra Costa Times, the East Bay Monthly, Literary Mama, and in several anthologies, including the Wednesday Writers anthology Something That Matters (Harwood Press, 2007). Laura and her family live in Northern California.