Be Different ─ Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian, With Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, Families & Teachers

The author of the New York Times bestselling Look Me in the Eye returns to help Aspergians, and even ordinary geeks, embrace being different and fix the things that hold them back in life.

With his usual honesty, dry wit, and unapologetic eccentricity, John Robison argues that Asperger's is about difference, not disability. In this book he offers stories from his own life and from the lives of other Aspergians to give the reader a window into the Aspergian mind. Equally important, he offers practical advice — to Aspergians, their parents, and educators?— on how Aspergians can improve the weak communication and social skills that keep them from taking full advantage of, or even recognizing, their often remarkable gifts.

John Elder Robison?grew up in the 1960s before the diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome existed. Today he has claimed his spot on the autism spectrum; he blogs for Psychology Today and is an adjunct professor at Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts. John served on the public review board for the National Institutes of Health where he considered research proposals to study autism spectrum disorders; he is currently involved in autism research at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; and he sits on the Scientific Advisory and Scientific Treatment boards of Autism Speaks. He is the brother of Augusten Burroughs, author of Running With Scissors.