Ellen Notbohm

Book excerpt: Your Friend, the Dentist

Ellen — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:43:05 +0000

Old stereotypes are hard to kill, but one that richly deserves to die is the notion that dental visits are torture, something to be feared, dreaded and avoided. While the ideal of “painless dentistry” may not be 100% realistic in every instance, 21^st century methods and practices are making dental visits tolerable and comfortable, even for a child with autism. There’s no denying that a dental office is fraught with innumerable sensory confrontations, but by your wise choice of a dentist who meets your child’s individual needs, those check-ups can become just another day in the life of your family…

Read the full excerpt from 1001 Great Ideas for Teaching and Raising Children with Autism or Asperger’s

Tricycle Dreams

Ellen — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:54:56 +0000

For children of all ages who have ever loved – or yearned for – a tricycle comes my story of a grandmother’s century-old remembrance of a heart’s desire unfulfilled, in Ancestry magazine’s final print issue. Read Tricycle Dreams.

New book release! Isn’t she lovely?

Ellen — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:56:35 +0000

1001 Great Ideas for Teaching and Raising Children with Autism and Asperger’s

Expanded and updated 2nd edition of the award-winning bestseller by Ellen Notbohm and Veronica Zysk

Winner of Learning magazine’s Teacher’s Choice Award

Read the Foreword by Dr. Temple Grandin
“The front cover of this book promises 1001 great ideas, which an ambitious undertaking by itself. The back cover of this second edition promises 1800. Anyone browsing autism books might question that two authors could amass this many ideas and that all of them would be “great,” but I must say, this book delivers.” Read more…

Explore the Table of Contents

Buy it now!

February newsletter on line now

Ellen — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:24:31 +0000

My February newsletter is out, with an excerpt from my new book and links to two dozen more good reads.

Facebook discussion: sleuthing the “why” of vocal stimming

Ellen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:07:22 +0000

On my Facebook page: Family has a nonverbal child whose vocal stimming has increased from occasional to nearly nonstop. Family and school know there is an unmet need but are unable to pinpoint. Child has been in intensive therapy for six years but shows little interest in anything. Anyone with similar experience have thoughts to share?

Click here to join the discussion.

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Ellen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:01:53 +0000

The January-February issue Ancestry focuses on the work lives of our forebears. In Nice Work If You Can Get It, I discover that the amateur, unpaid genealogist of today had well-paid predecessors a century ago.

We do it because we love it.

There’s always one more elusive ancestor to track down, one more document to pinpoint. As family historians, we love the people we meet in the course of our work, the places we visit. Strangers do us invaluable favors, and we love paying those back and paying them forward, though few of us are ever paid in cold, hard cash for our work.

Perhaps we’re living in the wrong century. An article in the Pine Island (Minnesota) Record dated 10 March 1910 (reprinted from the Washington Herald) shows just how generously we may have been compensated for our hard work 100 years ago…

Free books, anyone?

Ellen — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:54:29 +0000

Out with the old and in with the new! I have six signed copies of the original edition of 1001 Great Ideas for Teaching and Raising Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders to give to you before the second edition is released next month. Email your street address by 11:59 pm PST Friday, January 22 to emailme@ellennotbohm.com

Help your child succeed in school

Ellen — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:58:41 +0000

My interview with schoolfamily.com offers thoughts for those just starting out in special education. Read the article here.

“Pay attention?”

Ellen — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:49:33 +0000

As adults, one of the laziest verbal shortcuts we use is admonishing our children to “pay attention!” What we really mean is that we want them to focus on listening to information we are giving them verbally or demonstrating for them. There is no money exchanged, no pay involved, and for children with some language-based learning differences, the phrase can be completely meaningless. When the child then fails to “pay attention,” we interpret it as non-compliance, rather than as our own failure to communicate in a meaningful manner.

“Paying attention” requires the ability to focus and concentrate on a finite task. This may not come naturally to a child, but the skills required to do so can be taught. When both you and the child understand how his brain processes language and sensory input, you will be able to help him implement strategies to improve his concentration skills.

Read the full text of my article “Teaching Concentration Skills” in the September-October 2009 issue of Children’s Voice.

Facebook discussion: helping a self-biter

Ellen — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:14:54 +0000

Today on my Facebook page: parents weighing on how to help a child who is a self-biter. Click here to join the discussion.