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OT-Recommended Books for Helping Kids Understand Neurodiversity
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items One of my favourite parts of my job, and arguably one of the most important, is helping the kids that I work with and their family/friends to understand neurodiversity. It is hugely beneficial for kids to have a name for their diagnosis and an unders...
Sections
3
Picture Story Books
Series - The Awesome Autistic Guide
Older Readers
Picture Story Books
Although generally aimed at younger learners, these picture story books are a wonderful tool for older and younger children alike. Picture story books are also a wonderful, natural way of introducing neurodivergence to a child's class, siblings, or p...
This beautiful picture story book is a great general introduction to the concept of “different brains” and a celebration of all types of brains. I like this book because its uses are broad; it can be used to help a whole class or family learn about n...
The Brain Forest (General Neurodiversity)
Another beautiful picture story book by Sandhya Menon, ‘The Rainbow Brain’ delves specifically into the dual diagnosis of Autism and ADHD ("AuDHD"). This book would be great for reading with an AuDHD child to help them better understand their diagnos...
The Rainbow Brain (AuDHD)
This is a lovely, educational book for introducing the general concept of neurodiversity and briefly touching on different types of neurodivergence. It does not go in-depth into any one particular diagnosis, but rather, celebrates difference as a who...
Some Brains (General Neurodiversity)
Oh how I love this beautiful book! My Brain is a Racecar does not explicitly use diagnostic labels within the book, but rather, a child-friendly analogy of a ‘racecar brain’ to explain difficulties that Autistic/ADHD children might experience. This b...
My Brain is a Race Car: Kids' Neurodivergent Guide
This is a lovely, relatively simple book for helping younger kids understand autism. Would be great for siblings or young classmates of an autistic child.
My Friend Julia: Sesame Street Autism Book
Another beautiful Sesame Street book, this one is especially appropriate for young classmates of autistic children. There is a also a free, interactive read-along version on the Sesame Street website!
We're Amazing 1,2,3! Story on Autism
Another beautiful informative picture book to introduce the general concept of neurodiversity - again this one is great for whole-class or whole-family reading activities or to begin gently introducing the topic to an individual child in helping them...
Wonderfully Wired Brains: Intro to Neurodiversity
Series - The Awesome Autistic Guide
I absolutely LOVE this series of books by Yenn Purkis and Tanya Masterman. These are my go-to resource for older kids (late tween/early teen years) who are just learning about or struggling to accept their autism diagnosis. These books are part infor...
Part informative reading and part journal, this book is the most general/introductory of the series, covering a wide range of topics.
The Awesome Autistic Go-To Guide: Handbook
As the topic suggests, this part of the series is all about self-confidence and self-acceptance. Evidence suggests that this is one of the most important skills that we can instil into young autistic people to set them up for wellbeing into adulthood...
The Awesome Autistic Guide to Being Proud
This part of the series touches on something that is tricky for all teens and tweens, and can be even more challenging to navigate for autistic folk - relationships with others (both friends and family).
Awesome Autistic Guide: Relationships
The lucky last book in this beautiful series focuses on another area that is undeniably tricky for most teens and tweens - emotions. This book is a lovely balance of helping readers understand their emotions, and providing tips to regulate them and m...
Awesome Autistic Guide to Feelings & Emotions
Older Readers
Books aimed at older tweens or teens.
I love the fun illustrations and conversational tone in this book that make it so accessible for teen readers. This book is written by an autistic author, and provides autistic teens/tweens with lots of relatable content as well as some important inf...
A Different Sort of Normal: True Autism Story