摘要：The book Autism Spectrum Disorder through the Life Span, written by Digby Tantam and recently published by the Jessica Kingsley Publishers, represents a timely and welcome professional textbook which deals with the most recent progress both in basic science and clinical aspects concerning autism and people with an autism spectrum disorder. The author, Professor Digby Tantam, has a long, established career in psychiatry and his expertise with ASD people has been acquired in more than 30 years of clinical activity. His scholarly and professional work is well documented by his academic works, namely the many scientific international publications and opinion papers and it covers different topics which range from psychiatry and psychotherapy to applied philosophy. The book Autism Spectrum Disorders Through the Life Span is his second book dedicated to this topic. In the Preface, Professor Tantam introduces himself and explains the important contribution he received from the cultural and professional "milieu" where he grew up as psychiatric scholar. His specific interest in nonverbal behaviour and in social and emotional variables that act in human communication, together with the interaction with personalities such as John and Lorna Wing and Utha Frith at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, encouraged him to deepen his interest in nonverbal communication, his clinical commitment towards people with ASD, and in particular towards people with Asperger syndrome
