Autism is Not a Life Sentence is about a mother-daughter team who worked together to build a life of fulfillment and success – not by beating autism, but by working with it. It is the story of how author Lynley Summer's daughter, Jessica, descended into darkness from what appeared to be a normal infancy. The book chronicles how the author incorporated her background of chaos theory into behavioral modification therapy and used it successfully to systematically eliminate some of the characteristically autistic behaviors from Jessica's life. The reader will see Jessica, initially diagnosed as limited to a self-contained classroom and a helmet, grow into an accomplished high school student who composes music, writes stories and speaks at conferences about life with autism.