Wordy Wednesday “ the Incredible 5 Point Scale”
“Aha! No guessing required then?”
“Indeed. I thought I’d make it easy this week.”
“So how much is your commission?”
“Oodles upon oodles.”
“No link to Amazon?”
“You don’t need it, just some coloured paper, a black pen, cardboard and some sticky backed plastic?”
“Sticky backed what?”
“Laminater to you dearie.”
“And why exactly would I want one of these. I don’t have any autistic kids?”
“Well try it on yourself and if it works then you might have a go with the kiddie winkies.”
“Again, why?”
“Well maybe you have little kids that don’t have many words, or kids that lose their words when they get all het up.”
“The word “tantrum” does spring to mind.”
“Do you always know what’s upsetting them?”
“Sometimes is obvious but other times they’re wailing so much I just can’t figure it out.”
“Well that’s when this comes in handy.”
“How?”
“Quite often I can get really, really upset about something, I can feel the pressure building, breathe faster, heart racing, that sort of thing.”
“Me too.”
“We’re adults, we can usually recognize what’s happening to us, but children often don’t realize that they are heating up.”
“I suppose. But how would this help?”
“The idea is that you catch them as their emotions are rising. If you start with when they’re having a good day…”
“Or moment!”
“True! Then they can learn to associate feeling okie dokie with green, nice, calm and happy.”
“Okay.”
“Then you want to catch them when they’re just starting to get upset ‘yellow’ or already upset ‘orange’ but not when they’ve completely lost it and in the red zone.
“You know, that’s quite a useful skill to acquire for anyone. Bio rhythms. ”
“Indeed. Wish someone had introduced it to me when I was little. One of the things that I most like about this, is that I’m being active as a parent. Sometimes I can feel so helpless but this helps the communication. Even if they’ve lost their words they can still point at the right colour, the numbers helped for one of mine in particular.”
“I’m not sure about your colour scheme though. I often associate being in a rage with black or blinding white.”
“Adapt and survive, just figure out what works for you.”
“So you could probably adapt that to other things.”
“Right.”
“Like…one of mine has a tough time with our bedtime routine.”
“Really? Sounds like you’d be better off with “sequencing” and “social stories” for that one.”
“?”
“Another time, another post.”
“Could I use it when he gets in a tizzy about sharing?”
“Sure. Just about any tizzy you experience, it’s very flexible.”
“Yeah, so that might help get things under control.”
“I hope so. One of the most fabulous experiences I’ve had is helping them recognize what it feels like to be in a 5 and then gradually, gradually, gradually oozing back down to a green 1.”
“We Americans call that ‘empowering.’”
“Hmm, for both of us!”
“Geez, I bet it took forever until they grasped the concept?”
“You would think so wouldn’t you, but actually they ‘got’ it straight away. It took some practice, but it certainly tapped into something that’s maybe innate in all of us.”
“Ooo a bit like those “colour me beautiful” things in the 80’s?”
“Don’t date yourself dearie.”
“So are you gonna tell me about the calming techniques?”
“Good grief no, that would take forever. You could write tomes just on that one subject.”
“Another time perhaps?”
“There are a zillion books out there on the subject already.”
“Could you recommend one?”
“Well it’s a bit tricky as there isn’t really a one size fits all version.”
“Wriggled out of that one well. See you then. Cheers dears!”
“Hey, don’t pinch my line!”
“O.k. How about, toodle pip!”
“See ya babe.”
February 5th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Hi Maddy,
Does color coding the behavior of those autistic kids help them? I mean, can they really relate to the colors? It’s a new thing to me that’s why I’m asking. It’s called bio feedback but then I still have to educate myself regarding that subject matter. Thanks for the informative post. God bless you, your family and your noble ministry.
February 6th, 2008 at 1:06 am
I could have used this yesterday, but now I will know for tomorrow. we had our first “red 5″ day in a long long time and it was hard getting back to “green 1″ because he wouldn’t admit that he was even upset….despite the tears and lashing out.
February 6th, 2008 at 4:05 am
We use something like that but with faces.
February 6th, 2008 at 4:07 am
I love this!! Especially with the numbers.. that could really work in our house!
February 6th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Sammy Hagar tells us “red, red, I want red, there’s no substitute for red…mean ain’t green…” and on into a curse word I’ll save you from by not typing it here.
February 6th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Really great idea… might have to try this with mine!
February 6th, 2008 at 6:36 am
I love this concept. I first saw it a few years ago and purchased the book to use with students that I work with. I am happy to see that others are using it and it seems to be effective.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:06 am
great idea! makes a lot of sense on the interpersonal level….the homeland security, not so much.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:10 am
What a great concept! This would have really helped with my oldest. It took him a while to grasp speaking so he was a late talker. Lots of temper tantrums and lashing out as he was so frustrated he couldn’t communicate with us.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:51 am
wow, brilliant.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I think I might need one of those myself!
February 6th, 2008 at 9:56 am
This reminds me of the code orange days when the air quality is down. What a great idea!
February 6th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Brilliant!
February 6th, 2008 at 10:49 am
I think this is a good idea. Thanks for your comments too
February 6th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Hi! You left a comment on my blog about the Kitchner stitch….if you will EM me direct I’ll be happy to send you what I have….I didn’t get a link to your personal em and didn’t see it listed on your blog.
Please EM me: radhouse (at) mindspring (dot) com.
I have a couple of pages I can scan and send you!
February 6th, 2008 at 11:14 am
What a very interesting idea…I like it.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I linked to the Gray Center today too. It’s about two hours west from where I live in Central Michigan, U.S. Not that it matters, because it looks like they have a bunch of great stuff on their site.
Dropped my guy off at school while he was in the orange zone (he thought school would be cancelled because of the wild winter weather we’re having, but no it wasn’t). Am hoping his teachers/aides were able to get him back down the scale… Thanks for sharing.
February 6th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I associate a scale like that with pain. What would you say your pain is, a 4 or a 7?
Never would have thought of using something like that for feelings or moods. Awesome!
February 6th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Hmm – I think that might work for DD too. She had an amazing meltdown last night over her homework, though I think the real cause was that she was just hungry. Maybe we can use it as a hungry scale – “Mommy, feed me now before I start feeling orange!”
In the second photo is he trying to get the cat to tell him how he’s feeling? Our cat (may he rest in peace) would have always been at a state of red alert any time the children were within reach!
February 6th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Ugh! I tried this w/my oldest for his migraines, but we used smiley faces. He had a horrible time telling us anything. I wonder if color could have helped.
Now he can pinpoint if he’s having a migraine, like just when it starts. Finally.
This is a great idea!
ps I love the picture w/kitty. Cute!
February 6th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Verrrrry cool.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Boo has one with colour, number AND faces!!!
Saved my sanity on a number of occasions. And I have passed it on to friends with typical kids.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
at this moment I am a 1. I am cuddled up in bed clicking away with Princess MiMi cuddling me in her sweet four-year-old way. I love this idea…and I have no autistic children.
Thanks for stopping by the blog today…the reason I don’t do MeMes is because I’m just not that interesting in real life.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I could use one of those to point out to my kids exactly where my impatience/irritation level with their disobedience is at any given moment. That will notify them to either pad their behind with some toilet paper in preparation of a swat or that they may need to disappear to their room for awhile.
February 7th, 2008 at 12:15 am
Sounds like a great idea and tool for the kids! I love your wordy wednesdays.