In early 2018, author and blogger Elizabeth Barnes released her book “To Explore Strange New Worlds: Understanding Autism Through a Star Trek Lens,” published by Passageway Press.

The book explains how the characters and stories of Star Trek can be used to connect through a shared interest and as examples to better understand autism.

Featuring a cover image from “Growing Up Aspie”’s Nathan McConnell, the book discusses acceptance, anxiety, recognizing and dealing with bullying, effective communication including recognizing body language and facial expressions, the benefits and pitfalls of intense interests, and other useful topics.

Each is illustrated by a relevant Star Trek episode and comes with suggested points to start discussions. “It is charmingly geeky and lots of fun, with a deep love of Star Trek.”

Other tools and strategies can be found on her blog, Autism Mom. After her son’s diagnosis on the autism spectrum, Elizabeth often had to develop her own tools and strategies to support her child.

In hopes that others might find what she learned useful to them, Elizabeth started Autism Mom to share autism-related successes, challenges, lessons-learned, strategies, and tools. You are invited to visit at www.Autism-Mom.com.

In 2016 her son wrote and illustrated a book entitled “Cy and Dapper’s Prehistoric Extinction.”

Written for younger children, it is an exciting adventure filled with fun dinosaur facts and beautiful, fun illustrations.