Ten Things Your Student with Autism Wishes You Knew [Paperback]

The child of Ellen Notbohm's award-winning Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew is now a student in her latest book, Ten Things Your Student With Autism Wishes You Knew. In the student's voice, Ellen enlightens trained educators, support staff, therapists, administrators, parents, and family members about what their student wishes they knew. She offers a concise and comprehensive discussion of the underlying issues that influence teaching students with autism.

Ten Things is practical and written in clear, no-nonsense language. Ellen engages her audience with a lively and often witty writing style. She captures what it is like to function in the world of a student with autism, and provides a thoughtful examination and explanation of remedies for the problems she identifies.

Ellen says, "To be able to hear the voice of our student with autism and respond in ways that are meaningful to him or her, we must be able to step outside our own deeply, deeply ingrained frame of reference." She shows how important and possible it is to suspend all we know so we are able to think differently.

Ten Things is founded on the essential circle of learning between student and teacher, and it challenges us to lay aside our egos and become child centered. To use Ellen's quote from the 1995 Disney movie "Pocahontas", if you read and apply Ten Things, "You'll learn things you never knew you never knew."

And it is in that spirit that Ellen's student with autism would say to teachers and learners alike, "Please read this book":

If you believe it is important to discover ways to help students like me acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to live productive lives;

If you want to offer students a beginning, if you want to impact our lives positively, and if you want to see the best in us;

If you believe that learning is more than test scores, transcripts, and regurgitating information;

If you are committed to expanding your own education; and

If you are rewarded by seeing me believe in myself because you are putting within reach what most thought was beyond my grasp.

I gave a copy of this book and "Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew" to my child's principal and teacher. As the parent of a child with autism, I find myself reading these books again and again. What I appreciate most is the emphasis on recognizing the child with autism as a whole person, and not a series of problems needing to be fixed. They're short, easy to read, and packed with useful information for anyone wanting to know more about what it's like to be a child with autism in a neuro-typical world.

This is the best book I have ever read on the topic and believe me I have read hundreds!! I am currently reading this book with my therapy team and paraprofessionals in my classroom as a book club on a weekly basis to give us a new perspective. Definite read for anyone working in this field and for parents too! Wish some of my parents would read it so they would understand that we are all on the same team.