My expected behaviors

EXPECTED BEHAVIORS AT CAMP FOR ELENORE


1. Use kind words to friends and adults.

2. Speak in a level 1 voice to friends and adults.

3. If an activity makes me anxious or upset, use kind words to ask an adult for help.

4. Stay with the group.

5. Do the activity the group is doing.

UNEXPECTED BEHAVIORS AT CAMP FOR ELENORE

1. YELLING at friends and adults is unexpected.

2. RUNNING AWAY from friends and adults is unexpected.

3. LYING DOWN during group activities is unexpected

4. NOT LOOKING AT THE SPEAKER is unexpected.

 
We have been exposed to Michelle Garcia Winner's program, Social Thinking, because Ellie's interventionist uses it solo and in tandem with the SLP.  I used it to model this prompt for Ellie at camp.  A completely worthwhile exploration into how our kids think and how to get them to engage with the world in appropriate and functional ways. http://www.socialthinking.com/

Cheez it pleez

I don't know what it is about Ellie and carbohydrates.  I can't believe the hype that all kids with spectrum disorders like brown and crunchy (although that kid hasn't met a cracker she didn't love).  I think that it's a predictable texture, and this girl is all about predictability and routine.  I read the same book--Click Clack Moo--to her for a year and a half at afternoon nap time (before a bad spring forward ruined afternoon nap forever and she would only nap with me, in my bed, every day, which led to...problems).  She only likes dresses with pants.  She only drinks water.  She only plays Hogs and Kisses on Angry Birds, not any of the other varieties, although she is interested now in the monkeys in Rio.  She already has mastered my move, which is to control, control, control in order to alleviate anxiety.  Unfortunately, it took me almost 40 years to realize that the control is a facade, the anxiety will still bubble over, and the results can be difficult to bear.  I want to teach Ellie better tools than I was taught (none).  I want to show her that life isn't a thing to be managed; it's an adventure to live.  You just gotta remember to pack your crackers.

six is the new six.

Ellie had a birthday  this week, and while I don't have a lot of time now to write about the progress she has made in the last year, I will note that after six years, I am finally ready to say that she is toilet trained.

Whew.