I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had informed Samuel of an upcoming "video vacation." I had the calendar marked, so he had ample opportunity to "digest" the idea. Two nights ago I told Samuel, "It's time to pack up your videos and DVDs!" I had envisioned tears, frustration, and a long drawn out battle to hide the two boxes and their contents that had taken over our foyer closet and the surrounding area. I started walking over to the closet to begin.
Samuel surprised me by saying, "I want to pack them up!" He did just that! He took the boxes down to the basement. I didn't even follow him down. When he was finished he came back upstairs and I didn't hear anything else about the videos all night. Samuel has been taking a few videos to bed with him at night for several months now, I really thought he be lost without them but that hasn't been the case.
When he took the videos down to the basement I thought, "Right, he'll be down there whenever he gets the chance." That hasn't happened though! His in-home helper told me that he went into the storage room one time on Monday, but other than that he hasn't tried getting in there at all!
What's really neat is some of the things he is doing now instead of "looking at videos.
" This morning he went to the basement and built something with his legos. He told me that it is an art museum. He is building things like he has seen on a Lego Creator computer game that he and his brothers play. I also saw him playing with his sister's "Dress Up Elmo" doll. It's not that Samuel never plays with toys, it's just that it's nice to see him play with other things at the times he used to ALWAYS look at his videos.
I haven't completely banished videos either. He has been allowed to watch one video each of the last two days, after which we put it away promptly. Today we even went to the library and he was allowed to check out 5 new videos. When we got home I let him pick out one to watch and told him the remaining videos had to be put away. He was a little upset, but got over it pretty quickly.
"Video Vacation" was presented to Samuel as being a week long. I'm sure he's counting down the days. I already told him, however, that we won't be going back to having 20 + videos floating around all the time. His access to them is going to be more restricted than it had been. I'll be giving some thought the rest of this week as to how to do that.
In restricting his access to videos, I'm not trying to squash down some interest that Samuel has, I just want to channel his interest a bit. I won't say that this is so that he will be more "normal". I will say though, that I don't want his interest or obsession with videos, to get in the way of some other interests that he has.
Samuel surprised me by saying, "I want to pack them up!" He did just that! He took the boxes down to the basement. I didn't even follow him down. When he was finished he came back upstairs and I didn't hear anything else about the videos all night. Samuel has been taking a few videos to bed with him at night for several months now, I really thought he be lost without them but that hasn't been the case.
When he took the videos down to the basement I thought, "Right, he'll be down there whenever he gets the chance." That hasn't happened though! His in-home helper told me that he went into the storage room one time on Monday, but other than that he hasn't tried getting in there at all!
What's really neat is some of the things he is doing now instead of "looking at videos.
" This morning he went to the basement and built something with his legos. He told me that it is an art museum. He is building things like he has seen on a Lego Creator computer game that he and his brothers play. I also saw him playing with his sister's "Dress Up Elmo" doll. It's not that Samuel never plays with toys, it's just that it's nice to see him play with other things at the times he used to ALWAYS look at his videos.I haven't completely banished videos either. He has been allowed to watch one video each of the last two days, after which we put it away promptly. Today we even went to the library and he was allowed to check out 5 new videos. When we got home I let him pick out one to watch and told him the remaining videos had to be put away. He was a little upset, but got over it pretty quickly.
"Video Vacation" was presented to Samuel as being a week long. I'm sure he's counting down the days. I already told him, however, that we won't be going back to having 20 + videos floating around all the time. His access to them is going to be more restricted than it had been. I'll be giving some thought the rest of this week as to how to do that.
In restricting his access to videos, I'm not trying to squash down some interest that Samuel has, I just want to channel his interest a bit. I won't say that this is so that he will be more "normal". I will say though, that I don't want his interest or obsession with videos, to get in the way of some other interests that he has.
6 comments:
Will be interesting to hear if this works. Sounds good so far!
Yeah, Samuel!!!
What a thoughtful way to address this without causing tears and fears!
My NT son David once built the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in Legos. . . They are great toys for creativity. So, who is Edward III?
I am amazed at how versatile Legos are. We have a big plastic container of them in the playroom and all four of my kids, my 2 year old girl, 5 year old boy, Samuel, and my 10 year old boy, all get enjoyment from them.
Edward III is my oldest son. I think a label from my husband's labelling machine somehow made its way onto the lego base! Besides the big plastic container, he has quite a collection of Star Wars and Ferrari Legos. I like it best when he makes his own creations from the "general supply" of Legos though!
That is awesome! the whole idea of having it marked on the calendar and talking about it and giving them time to process and digest is great!
Connor (13) has been a little extra 'hyperlexic' today. switching words arouns all day. Like they play "Beat the Clock" in math and today it was "Clock the Beat" and them he had to repeat it a few times each oppurtunity he had to say it. I often wonder what triggers some days to be like that. Oh, well.
What a wonderful start to the Video Vacation!
Awesome art museum by the way- maybe Samuel has a future in architecture? :)
This is great news on the Video Vacation!
And the Lego creation looks great! (Legos are very popular in our house..)
Post a Comment