The Emotional Lives of Young People with Autism: Parents’ Voices from the UK and Taiwan

This study questions the validity of the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of autism, and offers evidence that even non-verbal children have an emotional life. Drawing on data from a series of intimate interviews with the parents of children with autism from three different cultures, namely the UK, India and Taiwan, the reader is shown how children with autism have emotional competence and do experience both negative and positive emotions.

Parents of children with autism have to make many sacrifices and worry about their child’s ability to become independent. Good parent-teacher relationships are essential, and doctors and their teams need to be sensitive and help families find the resources that they need. In some cases, religion plays an important role as does the acceptance by society in general.

The book will be of particular interest to families, teachers and professionals dealing with autism.


Hui-Fen Wu is a teacher at an elementary school in Taipei, Taiwan, where she works with children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). In addition, she also assesses SEND children from across Taipei and makes recommendations regarding their future education. She has also conducted research into the emotionality of autism in the UK.

Prithvi Perepa is a Lecturer in Autism Studies. He was trained as a teacher and started his career working in a centre for children with autism. Over the years, he has worked with people with autism in different roles and settings, from children’s services and schools to adult services.

Tom Billington is Professor of Educational and Child Psychology in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield, UK. In both his research and in his professional practice, he remains committed to ethical means of working, to challenging all forms of social exclusion, discrimination and oppression associated with the processes of psychopathologization, and to supporting individual young people to achieve to the maximum of their potential.

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ISBN: 1-5275-3507-X

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-3507-7

Release Date: 24th June 2019

Pages: 312

Price: £64.99

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