Career Opportunites for the ever so slightly deranged
Today I am also over “here” at “5 Minutes for Special Needs Mums.”
I sometimes think that I missed my calling as an air traffic controller. So many of the campaigns around here are premised on the scaffolding of visual aids. They used to be mainly PEC’s, writ large but these days anything goes.
Not so long back I would send my little darlings to school with a whole collection of aide memoires, dangling from their back backs. From the Incredible 5 Point scale, to talismen, many and various, as well as other clues to help them cope. I do believe that they looked like Christmas trees out of season, all the year round. They needed them to be physically available, as visual and tactile work well together for some children, especially mine.
It’s all about helping them to express themselves, sometimes in a socially acceptable manner but now they all talk, they have trouble taking turns with their announcements and questions. Currently, they believe that the best way to get results is to shout. They have naturally adopted the ‘squeaky wheel’ policy, figured it out for themselves, with ear splitting results. It seems to be a case of ‘he who yells loudest’ will ping mum into action. Thus far, it’s working rather well as I dart around fulfilling the latest request.
However, I plan to retire from my post as ‘short order commando cook’ and implement yet another new campaign, roughly along the lines of ‘how to take turns.’ I have yet to polish off the details.
I either need to print all the rules on a serviceable T-shirt and adopt it as my new uniform or alternatively make up a sandwich board to include the never ending list of ‘how to’s’, reminders and cues.
Pop on over and enter your “name” for a thoroughly free review of your blog.
In my next life I’m coming back as a sheepdog as I already have fabulous herding instincts.
Lastly, coming soonishly = lucky numbers.
Any requests?
Cheers dears
May 24th, 2009 at 6:49 am
clamshell in the base of the bowl, seagulls flocking around it
May 24th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Outdone yourself today, Maddy!
From the bottom up: lucky number bowls – brilliant! Parents might buy the number of birth-order for each child. As a recent purchaser of Maddy’s work, I proclaim her artis(wo)manship above all. BTW, Maddy, what is the name for the number that begins 1.6…?
I’m trying to think of a bridge to the behavior of waiting for correct social cues – is that an accurate phrase for what you are seeking?
So many social cues to learn, as a child. Is there one circumstance that can be learned in isolation and then generalized to others?
Sandwich board – lol!
Salud!
May 24th, 2009 at 8:19 am
Furious = Sounds like an out take from Alfred Hitchcock!
Barbara = I blush!
1.6 would be ‘phi’
As for the social skills cues, we have lots of strategies but trying to remember them all and implement them all in a consistent manner is a strain on the dwindling brain cells.
Cheers
May 24th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
The yelling on top pitch we went through (without losing our hearing but it was a close call!) so I figured out a small trick and made everyone go along with me; constantly reminded to speak quietly during normal times then everytime yelling commenced he was studiously ignored (as if we couldn’t hear him at all), quickly learning he got attention when he spoke quietly.
May 25th, 2009 at 12:21 am
I love the idea of retiring from your post as ’short order commando cook’ – that was one career opportunity I never bargained for! Good luck!
May 25th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Rocky’s speech therapist used a turn-taking technique she learned from reading Lord of the Flies to tame the wild boys in her therapy. In that book, you can only speak if you have a special conch shell in your hands. She used a Hot Wheels car (less likely to be used as a weapon), and when I’d visit her session it was not unusual to hear a child pipe up, “Pass the Porsche”.