Understanding Autism and Autistic Functioning: A Guide for Parents, Educators and Professionals

This concise volume offers an accessible overview of recent clinical and research perspectives addressing autism and autistic functioning. By providing an innovative lens, the book benefits from two different angles: a concrete and pragmatical view of an expert clinician with three decades of practice in diagnosis and treatment of autism, and a more "speculative" and "long-term" view of a researcher who works on neural and computational architecture of (a)typical neurocognitive functioning.

Trying to understand autism beyond its behavioral symptoms, the book spans from clinical descriptions (e.g., communicating diagnosis, clinical intervention, and prognosis) to recent neuroscientific evidence supporting a potential perspective-shift. The fil rouge of this volume can be summarized in three fundamental aspects that should orient any clinical practice in the context of autism (e.g., diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, etc.): we need an age-dependent, context-dependent, and functioning-dependent approach.

Understanding Autism and Autistic Functioning is crucial reading for parents and caregivers, and professionals in health, education, and social care.

Laura Villa is a medical doctor specialized in child neuropsychiatry at the University of Milan (Italy), and she is also a psychotherapist. She works at the Scientific Institute IRCCS MEDEA - Associazione "La Nostra Famiglia" (Italy) where she is the chief of the rehabilitative services for children with autism.

Luca Casartelli is a researcher (PhD at the University of Geneva, Switzerland), head of the "Theoretical and Cognitive Neuroscience" Research Unit at the Scientific Institute IRCCS MEDEA. At present, he is also Adjunct Professor of developmental neuroscience (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Italy), and philosophy (University of Milan, Italy).