Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

Written by a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, this is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one at last have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within. With disarming honesty and...

This guidance document has been developed to assist school district personnel and families in becoming familiar with the wide range of characteristics and abilities of their students with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in applying Colorado's new eligibility category of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to identify students eligible for special education services. Schools have experienced a steady increase in the number of students with autism...

In his bestselling memoir, Look Me in the Eye, the author described growing up with Asperger's syndrome at a time when the diagnosis didn't exist. He was intelligent but socially isolated; his talents won him jobs with toy makers and rock bands but did little to endear him to authority figures and classmates, who were put off by his inclination to blurt out non sequiturs and avoid eye contact. By the time he was diagnosed at age forty, he had already...

Over the past two decades, Colorado's identification process for students with Significant Identifiable Emotional Disabilities (SIED) has undergone a number of revisions. Such changes have contributed to a lack of clarity on the part of educators around criteria, assessment, policies, and programming. A primary purpose of this guidebook is to provide a practical resource that contributes to the consistent identification of students with emotional...

A father shares his autistic son's story and offers inspiration and advice for families facing similar challenges. Like any other teen boy, Austin loves pizza, movies, dancing, and girls. But unlike most other eighteen-year olds, he has a rare brittle-bone disease, was locked in a mental ward as a child, and is autistic. Yet Austin doesn't let any of that stop him.