Samuel has taken to teasing his "baby" sister! Well, I guess she's not really a baby anymore, she's almost three years old. Just about every time he sees her he gets this devious grin on his face and either says her name (also in a devious fashion), or he reaches out to her with his hand kind of like a "claw" and "growls" at her. The whole time he does it he's just grinning and giggling away. Why? Because he is "rewarded" with shrieks and screams from her!
I'm trying to make her understand that her reaction is what he is really after, it's not so much that he wants to physically go after her. However, in her defense, he has pulled her hair and pushed her down enough times that she does see the need to fight back. How do I convince her that the best way for her to "fight back" to his teasing is just to ignore him?! So far it's not working. Instead, she screams bloody murder and then one of her other two big brothers plays knight in shining armor and some kind of wrestling match or brawl ensues!
We're having countless outbursts of this throughout our days at home right now!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Thank you Maddy!
I have been given an award by Maddy at Whitterer on Autism! Thanks so much! I love Maddy's blog as well, I can't think of another with so much humor and fun!
I would like to pass this award on to Sharon at The Skates Family 7. I enjoy the stories and terrific photos she shares about her children and family, and her cakes are terrific!
I would also like to pass this award on to Miss Nelson at Meaningful Outcomes. I greatly admire teachers who take the time to share their knowledge with parents like she does on her blog.
Additionally, I would like to award Mother of Many, at A Blog on the Spectrum. Hers is one of the first blogs I started reading, going on 2 years ago. She shares lots of fun photos and pictures. I also enjoy reading about her family and the multitude of other entertaining things she talks about!
Monday, October 20, 2008
An Award
Mrs. C gave me the Perfect Blend of Friendship Award. As she described herself when she was given this award, "to claim my fabulous prize of four cyber coffee cups full of mysterious liquid, I must answer the following questions and provide links to five unsuspecting victims:"
1. Do you have the same friends since childhood? I moved 15 times growing up, and somehow I have managed to keep in touch with one person! I have a friend from way back in third grade. We knew each other in Monterey, California, for the year that our Dads were attending graduate school. The last time we saw each other was when we were twelve years old, back in 1975. I lived in Philadelphia, PA and she lived in Doylestown, PA. We still send each other birthday cards and Christmas cards every year. She has been back in California now for over 25 years while I have stayed on the East coast.
2. What do you value most about your friends? Their dependability and trustworthiness.
3. Are your friends your sounding boards? I always thought being able to be a sounding board for each other was a part of friendship, but I've learned a very hard lesson about this in the past few years. Actually, I think my problem had more to do with thinking certain people were better friends than they actually were. I find it difficult to balance being cautious and freely sharing my thoughts. I'm still learning and trying to grow up!
4. What is your favorite activity to share with your friends? Chatting and going out for lunch or coffee.
I would like to share this award with:
Thank you Mrs. C! My first award!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Soccer Dilemma and the Breakfast Challenge
We didn't go to Samuel's soccer practise last night. He had been up until midnight the night before. He was dragging the whole entire day, so around mid-afternoon I decided I wasn't going to put everyone through the whole routine of getting up to Winchester (about a 15 mile drive from our house) to have him experience yet another meltdown. After all, I have 3 other children to bring along as well. I hated to give up on going, however.
We simply have too many things scheduled for Wednesdays right now: Occupational therapy in the morning (up in Winchester), then back home, then a trip into town (5 miles the opposite direction) for going to the park for my boys' only regular chance to see friends each week, then the 15 mile + drive up to soccer at 5:30. I don't feel like I can give up any of the other things, so soccer will have to be it for now since late afternoon is a time Samuel isn't used to doing things right now. We'll try this differently in the future..
Now for the Breakfast Challenge. Samuel likes to keep requesting additional food as he finishes breakfast, "Mom, can I have more cereal?" A fit follows if he doesn't get an affirmative answer. My attempt at a solution has been to make a menu on which he checks off his select
ions. A "second course" is included. It has been quite helpful so far, but was a bit messy because it was done in dry erase marker on a piece of laminated paper.
I just made a laminated menu. We'll try it for the first time this morning. I'll let you know how it goes.
This next photo is the laminated page from which he'll make his selections for the "menu." The next photo is where I'll store all the "icons" I have made. Yes, we eat lots of Malto Meal Cereal! I try to save the "sweeter" cereals for snack times rather than serving them for breakfast.
We simply have too many things scheduled for Wednesdays right now: Occupational therapy in the morning (up in Winchester), then back home, then a trip into town (5 miles the opposite direction) for going to the park for my boys' only regular chance to see friends each week, then the 15 mile + drive up to soccer at 5:30. I don't feel like I can give up any of the other things, so soccer will have to be it for now since late afternoon is a time Samuel isn't used to doing things right now. We'll try this differently in the future..
Now for the Breakfast Challenge. Samuel likes to keep requesting additional food as he finishes breakfast, "Mom, can I have more cereal?" A fit follows if he doesn't get an affirmative answer. My attempt at a solution has been to make a menu on which he checks off his select
ions. A "second course" is included. It has been quite helpful so far, but was a bit messy because it was done in dry erase marker on a piece of laminated paper.I just made a laminated menu. We'll try it for the first time this morning. I'll let you know how it goes.
This next photo is the laminated page from which he'll make his selections for the "menu." The next photo is where I'll store all the "icons" I have made. Yes, we eat lots of Malto Meal Cereal! I try to save the "sweeter" cereals for snack times rather than serving them for breakfast.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Soccer Update and Social Skills Update
I'm in another spell of being too busy to blog, but I wanted to give a quick update.
Unfortunately, Samuel's enthusiasm for soccer did not carry forward to the next practise. I was so eager, I had the entire family come along and Samuel was not interested at all. As his helper and I tried to keep him involved he got more and more agitated and finally had a bit of a meltdown, with curse words and all! We've been talking about it with Samuel all week and we'll see how it goes at practise tomorrow night. Hopefully there will be more staff on hand to help. There were not as many staff members to help this past week as there were the first time we went.
A trip to go shoe shopping, along with a trip to an electronic game store, started off very bumpy this past weekend. It ended on a much better note, however, after we took a bit of a break in the car. Samuel even apologized for his behavior later in the day.
Samuel is continuing to ask inappropriate questions as he greets people. The latest question at church to the ushers is, "Are you bald?" Fortunately, they are good-natured about it! As he looked around the church this past weekend I heard him whisper to himself, "Everyone's bald!" A good percentage of the men were! I mentioned Samuel's questions to his speech therapist yesterday and she pointed out that Samuel is becoming more aware of the differences in people, so in dealing with this we need to address that awareness in Samuel. I had been stuck on the idea that he was doing the whole greeting thing wrong.
Can anyone steer me to any good sources of teaching material that talk about how people are different?
Unfortunately, Samuel's enthusiasm for soccer did not carry forward to the next practise. I was so eager, I had the entire family come along and Samuel was not interested at all. As his helper and I tried to keep him involved he got more and more agitated and finally had a bit of a meltdown, with curse words and all! We've been talking about it with Samuel all week and we'll see how it goes at practise tomorrow night. Hopefully there will be more staff on hand to help. There were not as many staff members to help this past week as there were the first time we went.
A trip to go shoe shopping, along with a trip to an electronic game store, started off very bumpy this past weekend. It ended on a much better note, however, after we took a bit of a break in the car. Samuel even apologized for his behavior later in the day.
Samuel is continuing to ask inappropriate questions as he greets people. The latest question at church to the ushers is, "Are you bald?" Fortunately, they are good-natured about it! As he looked around the church this past weekend I heard him whisper to himself, "Everyone's bald!" A good percentage of the men were! I mentioned Samuel's questions to his speech therapist yesterday and she pointed out that Samuel is becoming more aware of the differences in people, so in dealing with this we need to address that awareness in Samuel. I had been stuck on the idea that he was doing the whole greeting thing wrong.
Can anyone steer me to any good sources of teaching material that talk about how people are different?
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