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 Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew :: 1932565302
Description
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| Every parent, teacher, social worker, therapist, and physician should have this succinct and informative book in his/her back pocket. Framed with both humor and compassion, the book defines the top ten characteristics that illuminate the minds and hearts of children with autism. Ellen’s personal experiences as a parent, an autism columnist, and a contributor to numerous parenting magazines coalesce to create a guide for all who come in contact with a child on the autism spectrum. Don’t buy just one of this book — buy one for everyone who interacts with your child! Give the gift of understanding. Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
What an excellent book, this gives wonderful insight into the everyday issue's that we sometimes forget an autistic child deals with. I am a care-giver for a child with autism, after reading this book I made a point of getting her family to read it too. You can never know too much about Autism. I know I will be reading this book again in the near future!
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Author: Guest
This is by far the best resource for learning to understand and work with a child diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. I am a pediatric occupational therapist and I have worked with children on this spectrum for over 23 years. I also have a 5 year old son diagnosed with ASD. I have read many books and attended many conferences on this disorder and this book truly illuminates the core issues of these children. Ms. Notbohm describes the important issues in a clear and easy to understand way and provides examples and practical ideas to help deal with these issues. This book has the potential to change the lives of these children and their caregivers as it will increase understanding-with understanding comes acceptance and with acceptance these children can blossom and show the amazing gifts they have locked inside.
This book should be required reading of any student who will be involved in the care of these children and it should definitely be on the nightstand of every parent, caregiver, teacher, aide, bus driver, administrator, etc. of these children!
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Author: Guest
Buy this book for everyone who interacts with your child, including moms, dads, grandparents, brothers, sisters, friends, teachers/special education service providers, babysitters, pediatricians, and the next person you meet whose child is newly diagnosed with ASD...
This is the book I wish I'd had when our son was diagnosed with ASD years ago. I am on my second reading... There is so much info packed in there -- I laughed and cried, and mostly didn't want the book to end. An important book that will make a positive difference in the lives of people living with autism.
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Author: Guest
I read the book with fervor and anticipation of chapter 9, realizing more and more that everything makes sense. As a grandmother and legal guardian of a 6-year-old boy with autism, I now have a clearer understanding of my little guy and the reasons things set him off (meltdowns), his hearing sensitivities and his frustration when it comes to vocalizing his needs...everything comes together.
I learned that giving in to his moods or sometimes demanding requests is not going to spoil him nor is he a brat, something I knew but suspect others may have thought! Shame on them, eh? Now I can attempt to figure out exactly what he is trying to express and what is bothering him. A tough job, but not an impossible one.
Ellen, how about a compact book with the same contents for young siblings to read?
I will hi-light, mark, re-read and read certain parts of the book to my husband and to other that touch David's life.
This book will be kept in reach.
Carol De Maio
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Author: Guest
Ellen Notbohm's Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew, an extension of her article "What Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew" speaks to children's wishes and the choices parents can make to honor them. Its soul triggered in me a CliffNotes' synopsis of Aristotle's contention that "choice (as determined by deliberation) is concerned with means to an end. Wish is concerned with the end."*
And so begins Ten Things, with the first wish of a child - that he or she be known by one word, and one word only - "child," and not squelched by the label "autistic child." It ends with the child's final wish - that he receive unconditional love and acceptance. The remaining eight wishes tucked in between provide insight into the tools (via choices parents can make) that will honor, empower and respect their precious children and make all their wishes come true.
Ten Things zeros in on the importance of sensory issues and thoroughly explains their direct link to a child's behavior. Ellen reminds parents that "seemingly inexplicable behavior ... all have a sensory cause ... No matter how unprovoked, how random it may appear, behavior never comes out of nowhere." She guides parents through reformatting their own beliefs and suggests ways to identify and work with the child's sensory structure.
Ten Things addresses those infamous "meltdowns," explains the four trigger clusters, and offers suggestions on how to identify their underlying causes. Ellen acknowledges that it's hard work for parents to actively seek out reasons for those meltdowns rather than chalk them up to an out of control child that could do better if he wanted to. By her own diligence, and with the help of qualified professionals, meltdowns are a rare happening in her home now.
Ten Things reminds us that our children are concrete and visual thinkers and they interpret language literally. Ellen explains why idioms don't work and how we can train ourselves to speak concretely and say what we mean to help our child understand since any communication that doesn't make sense to a child simply won't get through. Without helping him develop a functional way to communicate his needs, fears and wants, they will take any shape they want, which means they'll generally manifest in the form of behavior.
Ten Things provides techniques to construct a visual strategy to help a child to navigate his day, which will quite naturally and over time contribute to improved social interactions and the creation of a solid self esteem, the foundation for social functioning. And for the child's sake, Ellen implores parents to remember and believe that he's trying the best he can with his limited abilities and social understanding. Any other belief system will short circuit the route for him to become a functioning citizen in our world.
That said, and in the spirit of Aristotle, Ellen makes it clear that we as parents and teachers and caregivers are the means to our child's end.
Without doubt, the word 'autism' strikes fear in the hearts of parents, and Ellen makes no bones about it. She speaks candidly about her own initial grief and despair when her son was diagnosed - those instantaneous images of her child locked inside his own head, never able to interact properly with the world and become self-sufficient.
Those thoughts and perceptions became the energy behind her "can-do" attitude, her intensive and pro-active approach, and her battle plan against a self-fulfilling prophecy of hopelessness for her little boy. She recognized the potential within him; a potential present in all children waiting to be noticed and built upon, and not just fixed. It didn't take long for her to realize that she would not change her son, even if she could. "I wouldn't have him be anything other than exactly what he was ..."
A child's wish of unconditional love - granted.
Ten Things champions the cause of helping families discover their strengths. It validates everybody's capabilities and possibilities. It addresses early confrontations with "can't do" and redirects the focus onto what children "can do." It offers a roadmap for avoiding what Ellen calls the "swamp of unmet expectations," the place where a child's "potential goes to die if parents don't detach their personal aspirations from their child's."
Ten Things is all about parental choices:
· choosing between negative and positive thinking (he won't do versus he can't do);
· choosing to live in the dark rather than the light (frustration versus empowerment and patience);
· choosing to limit themselves and their child by trying to bend him to their will by forced compliance rather than focusing on his gradual acclimation to the mysterious nuances of daily life that create havoc in his world;
· choosing to move beyond the bitterness, grief and disappointment that they didn't "get the child they were supposed to get," and open their minds to becoming the parents they have been called to become.
· choosing a rewarding direction for their life, their child's life, their family's life.
Read Ten Things. Absorb it. Then read it again and again. Learn from it. Trust it. Find your strength. Choose well for your child. Make all his wishes come true.
*Online CliffNotes for Aristotle's Essays on Ethics.
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