Pete Wharmby – författare

It’s time to remake the world – the ground-breaking book on what steps we should all be taking for the autistic people in our lives. The modern world is built for neurotypicals: needless noise, bright flashing lights, small talk, phone calls, unspoken assumptions and unwritten rules – it can be a nightmarish dystopia for the autistic population. In Untypical, Pete Wharmby lays bare the experience of being ‘different’, explaining with wit and warmth just how exhausting it is to fit in to a world not designed for you.But this book is more than an explanation. After a late diagnosis and a lifetime of ‘masking’, Pete is the perfect interlocutor to explain how our two worlds can meet, and what we can do for the many autistic people in our schools, workplaces and lives. The result: a practical handbook for all of us to make the world a simpler, better place for autistic people to navigate, and a call to arms for anyone who believes in an inclusive society and wants to be part of the solution.

'One of the most important voices on autism and education today' – Jessie Hewitson, SEND agony aunt, The Times and the Sunday Times, and author of Autism: How to Raise a Happy Autistic Child'Different Minds asks the forgotten question at the heart of modern education: are the kids alright? Compassionate, urgent and deeply validating.' – Leanne Maskell, author of AuDHD: Blooming Differently and ADHD an A–Z: Figuring it Out Step by StepIf you have an autistic child, you will be painfully aware of the challenges they face in education. Beyond the headlines on SEN provision are real children who struggle from day-to-day – how can we help them?In Different Minds, neurodivergence campaigner and former teacher Pete Wharmby shines a light on what it’s like to be autistic in Western school systems today, so that we can understand how to support our children through the most important years of their lives. Through a blend of story-telling, polemic and empathetic advice, Wharmby exposes the inadequacies of the current system, explains how differences have been mislabelled as ‘challenging behaviour’ and provides a blueprint for understanding and supporting young autistic minds.Galvanising and compassionate, this important book empowers parents, teachers and carers to take a stand against the vilification of our autistic school children and provide the scaffolding they need to thrive.