Just by the nature of things, the Monster still largely engages in parallel play. This means, when the boys are playing on the floor, they’re generally either trying to play individually with the same toys, or playing off in their own corners. Continue reading
Uncategorized
Flowers
Every so often, the Monster surprises us.
Yesterday was Gymnastics – we’re working on trying to get him into more of a narrative mode, so we do a lot of talking to him about his schedule, to see if he can’t start picking up on what day it is, et cetera. Of course, it was also St. Valentine’s Day, so his school had that stuff going on… Continue reading
Hit Or Miss
As I’ve mentioned a number of times, one of his IEP goals for the coming year is, with fading prompts, to get the Monster to announce to us – on his own – when he needs to go to the bathroom.
At school, he’s on a relative schedule – they take him to the bathroom before/after lunch, once or twice more throughout the day, and then before he gets on the bus to go home. Since sometime in the fall, they’ve moved to a classroom that has a bathroom actually in it, so that they don’t have to take the kids (several of whom are in the same boat ) through the hallway to the bathroom. Continue reading
Ask for It
One of the goals for the coming year on the IEP is to get the Monster to ask for help when he needs it.
Asking for help doesn’t necessarily come naturally to anyone, but the issue here is getting him to verbally request assistance from another person, be it a classmate or an adult. Continue reading
Service Details
As a technologist, I look at the IEP as something of a requirements document – it specifies the goals for his services for the coming year, and the acceptance criteria to decide whether or not the goals have been met. As everything out there reminds us, these goals should be SMART – Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. Continue reading
Morning Routines
We’re very blessed, I think, that during the school week, the Monster’s able to cope with how things vary on what’s supposed to be a fixed schedule. Continue reading
Managing Idle Time
The problem for the weekends in general is the lack of structure.
I’ve mentioned this before – the Monster works better with a concrete structure in his life rather than the disorder of a weekend. So during the school week, he has things he can do and then only a few hours of unorganized time, but then Saturday comes around and everything’s left open. Continue reading
Your Release
When I started going to the Dads’ Talk support group that I’ve been infrequently attending (infrequent if only due to my own winter schedule), the first thing that they ask new members to talk about is their situation – what’s the situation at home that brought them to the group, what is their home life like… and what do you do for a release? Continue reading
Adaptations
New IEP or no (and at the moment, it is ‘no’), the Monster’s doing alright in school on an academic level. Continue reading
Monster See…
I’m so used to what the Monster does and doesn’t do that it throws me sometimes when he starts to do something different. Continue reading