MAY
GROUP MEETING – May 24, 2013
LIAM
GOAL
1: Inspire Liam to practice his sense of independence (“Go get your clothes
from the drawer and get dressed”, “Go get the book that is under the pillow”,
“Bringing the fire truck from the closet”)
Games:
-
Hide favorite
things in the room and give him directions to find them. For example: puppets,
cars, puzzle pieces. Remember the hide-and-seek games we used to play with
Duch.
GOAL
2: Show Liam how to express his likes and dislikes: “I like …” and “I don’t
like …”
Games:
-
Gather stuff, like clothes, books, snacks, and
toys, at the start of the session. For example: A princess book and a
transportation book, a shirt with turtle neck and a sleeveless shirt, a tomato
and brown crackers, a doll and a ball. Ask him: “Which one do you like?” in an
open-ended question. Give him time to respond. After some tries, if he has not
responded, you could switch to “Which one do you like best, the transportation
book or the princess book?” The goal is for him to start expressing his
opinions: “I LIKE ….” And “I DON’T Like …”
-
“I LIKE/I DON’T LIKE Posterboard”: Have a
posterboard on the wall, one for Liam, and one for you. Each posterboard is
divided into “I like” and “I don’t like”. We could bring magazines and cut
pictures of things and do drawings and ask him what he likes, seaweed or
spinach, or Target or Walmart, etc. It
could be opposites: I like sunny days vs. I don’t like rainy days. You could
also fill your posterboard with your likes and dislikes. When explaining what
you don’t like, you could model why you don’t like it: “I don’t like sweaters
because they are itchy”.
-
“Puppets and food and spinner or dice”
game: Have a pillow bag with puppets and
a pillow bag with plastic food and a spinner or dice with “I like” and “I don’t
like” options. You and Liam take one puppet from the bag, one food from the
bag, spin the spinner or throw the dice and get to see if the puppet likes or
doesn’t like the food. Then, you say it and act it out: “The peacock likes the
pizza!, let’s eat it! It’s delicious, yum, yum, yum” or “The flamingo does not
like the muffin! Yucky! Let’s throw this muffin away!” So, it could be fun to
pretend to eat the foods that the puppets like, and you can give extra context
with extra sentences, and then to get rid of the foods that the puppets don’t
like and to put them away. We could use spinners from other games (like
twister) or the big inflatable dices.
GOAL
3: Help Liam to have a clear and specific way to participate in games (be
directive & fun in giving him a role)
Games:
-
Liam has been asking for drawing again. The
important thing to remember is that even if we have played this game in a
repetitive way in the past, HE IS NOT IN THE SAME PLACE. So, this time we can
change it up and do it in a very different way, involving him more and asking
him to do things:
·
What is missing? Draw incomplete figures.
·
How do I draw that? Go through the steps of
drawing something and the parts of the figure.
·
Choices? Colors? Sizes? Shapes? Ask him to
choose.
·
Expand the picture with scenarios: if you draw a
bulldozer, draw a pile of dirt and a building. Explain to Liam with the
bulldozer is doing with the dirt, and how it is used to build a building. Write
a sentence about the scene.
·
While you are drawing, share “I like”s and “I
don’t like”s. For example: “I like to color with yellow, because it is a pretty
color”.
-
The flying puppets game. The puppets are in a
pillow bag. You take one out. You ask a hard question about it: “Do peacocks
have feathers or fur?” “What do tigers eat?” “Where do camels live?” “Do pandas
live in America or in Asia?” “Do butterflies fly or run?” Mix open-ended
questions with choice type of questions. When he gets them right, he gets to
throw the puppet. You could have fake or
real bandaids with you. So, when the puppet lands you could say: “Ouch! I hurt
my foot.” And then you get to check the puppet and put a band-aid on or use the
doctor’s kit with the puppet and you get to talk about that experience.
-
“Knock, knock, who is there?” Games, “Who is at
the door?” Games.
-
Parachute games putting the puppets on top of
the parachute.
GOAL
4: Have fun with Liam by building on any word or sentence that he says and
creating a game with it
-
Remember when we did this with Duch when she was
scripting a lot. Anything she said, we built on it. It’s time to do that with
Liam. Even if he says one word “ambulance” or a sentence that has nothing to do
with what we are doing “there is a trail”, take that idea and go for it.
GOAL 5: Help Liam to see that using
his words when he is frustrated works better than whining
-
Again think about Duch, when we would tell her:
“You can cry, go for it. I will play here and when you are ready, tell me what
you want”. Don’t go for his crying and don’t give him long speeches when he is
crying. It is just a matter of him seeing that he does NOT get attention when
he is crying. He can cry, but he is not going to get what he wants if he cries.
In contrast, when he is calm and tells us what he wants, he gets it SUPER FAST.
-
Help him also by modeling “transition” or
“protest” sentences: “I am bored”, “I
want to play something else”, “I want a break”, etc.
DUCH
GOAL 1: Show
Dusya how to ask questions to her teachers, friends, and family (e.g.,
interviews, conversation kits, guessing games, school games, etc.)
-
Come to
the room with the game or any object in a closed bag (plastic or paper or
pillow bag). Don’t say anything. Just keep your bag with you. The idea is for
HER to come and say: “What’s in the bag?” “What did you bring?” “What’s that?”
We want spontaneous interactions with questions.
-
Come to
the room with whiskers on your face, with your head in a bag with circles in
your eyes, with your hair in a very different way, with things painted on your
face. The idea is for her to say: “Are you a cat?” “Why do you have whiskers?”
“What did you do with your hair?” “Why do you have a bag on your head?”
-
Cliffhangers:
“Duch, I was walking yesterday in Target and you are never going to believe
what happened to me. I was walking in the toy section and then … AHHHH!!!!!” The idea is for Duch to say: “What happened?”
“What did you see?”
-
Cat in
the Hat guessing game from Walmart.
-
Guess
who game. à Need to work on our pictures
GOAL 2: Help
Dusya to explain herself in transitions (when she wants to switch activities or
when she is anxious about something; e.g., “I am bored”, “I would like to do
something else,” “This is loud”, etc)
GOAL 3: Enjoy
playing “school themes” with Dusya (schoolwork, school routines, and school
dynamics with friends)
·
Playground conversations
·
Writing games
·
Coloring games
·
Drawing games
·
Work books
·
Calendar routine
·
Weather routine
·
More intensive Miss Rizwana from June 7th
to July 8th. Then, Miss Rizwana is taking a break from July 9th
to August 9th. And then we could have again intensive Miss Rizwana
from August 10th until classes start.
GOAL 4: Help
Dusya to use her pronouns correctly: he, she, you, I, me, they, us, etc.
