Our miracles in progress: September 2013

Program Goals for Liam

YAY for Liam! He has figured out the formula! Change up what you are doing and request more control and balance in your friend relationship.

Liam is “running the show”; he is “playing us”; he has “figured out the system” à it is time to take some control back

Set boundaries with Liam:

It is ok and even beneficial to tell Liam no or to ask him to do something different. If he gets frustrated and cries or has a meltdown, look at it as a teaching opportunity in helping him with his flexibility.

v Throwing

· Set boundaries around throwing anything other than the designated items (E.g. 5-10 soft plastic balls).

· Insert yourself in the throwing games. Play baseball, tennis, catch so that the throwing is WITH you.

· Set a boundary for all of the children to no longer throw in other parts of the house or off the landing.

· Set a boundary around Liam throwing parts of your game or toy. Share with him WHY you are not going to throw the item. (This is ok to do as you are sharing YOUR opinion and asserting your WANTS and DESIRES. It is time to ask for some control back)….this is a friendship skill.

· Since Liam does like to throw items down the hallway bathroom, put a net in the hallway to catch the items to go only so far.

· Bring in a bowling set. If Liam wants to throw items down the aisle show him bowling.

v Paper

· Set boundary around ripping paper. Decide how many pieces of paper you will allow Liam to rip (e.g. 6 half pieces a day-in lower white drawer on his shelf–right side). Remind him of how many pieces he has left as he continues to ask for it. Once Liam has ripped all of his pieces of paper and he has asked for more, explain that he has used up his paper for the day. He is welcome to tear the already ripped bits.

· Know that running out of paper to rip is a wonderful opportunity for him. He will have to work out being ok with no longer having an endless supply. How will he adapt? How will he take care of himself? How will he move through it?

· Liam may adjust easily and quickly as we saw when Dusya took the puzzle away. Also, Megan experimented with saying, “Oh. We don’t have any newspaper in here.” Liam was fine with the explanation.

· Make boundaries VERY clear and specific for everyone on the team. This specificity will help Liam to know what is ok and what is not.

· It is ok to set boundaries to change your environment to eliminate messes.

o Explore with the girls how they will feel about setting boundaries.

o Explore their fears and anxieties around Liam’s response of crying etc.

The “joining from the distance doing something else” technique (“the Little People” technique we used with Duch)

· At the level Liam is right now, we don’t “join” him anymore when he is exclusive by “mirroring” him (reading books if he is reading books, ripping papers if he rips papers, etc.). At this point, joining him means that we will give him space and we will not be invasive of his space. We can keep playing with our game in the distance.

· So, if we introduce a game and he chooses to go read a book, or finds a piece of paper to rip, we continue playing our game by ourselves to show him how much fun our game is. We position ourselves in a way that we can see if he sees us. If he is looking at us, we make the game bigger and more attractive. If he is not looking at us, we are a bit quieter while playing the game, but still have fun with the game. When he comes to join us with our game, be very welcoming and show him how much fun it is to play this game together.

Help Liam to participate in games more (e.g. play symbolically and simple pretend).

· Liam consistently does exploratory play (checking out toy, throwing them, looking at them).

· Give Liam a clear and consistent role.

· Be persistent in asking Liam to play.

· Model the game and his role with puppets.

· “Help Liam refocus back to the game.” If he says, tear newspaper while you’re playing birthday party, respond to him by saying, “Wait let’s blow out the candles.” Or “We don’t have paper at the birthday party.”

Help Liam to expand his spontaneous language

· Continue to model language around Liam’s focus of interest. Talk about the things that he pays attention to...comment a bit more than you may have in the past. (E.g. label or describe what Liam sees hears or does as it happens).

· Link the phrase to an action in order for it to be meaningful. “Liam, you love train puzzles.” “Liam you like blue chips.”

· Self-talk (talk about what you are doing while Liam watches). Again, you are speaking more than you have in the past but keep the sentences short and concise.

· Expand on Liam’s phrases and repeat what he says but add more information and STRESS those new words/phrases several times a day

· Choose the phrases you want to focus on such as “I need help to….” “I don’t want to…” Use them multiple times a day in a variety of situations 15-20 times a day. (E.g. Mealtime, bathing, dressing, household chores, driving, shopping….narrate to him). If he wants your help but does not say anything wait until he says something to help.

· Continue with “Inadequate Portions.” Limited snack, activity or toys. For example, if he wants a book give him a few that he may not want.

· Purposefully change up Liam’s routine or sequence of a known activity or task. See if he will protest. You can re-encourage NO or STOP.

Help Liam to develop more expressive speech.

· Continue to ask Liam open-ended questions. If the question is too challenging offer him non-verbal choices and point to his options.

· Fill in the blanks. (E.g. The baby is in the _____.)

· Try to ask question but only when Liam is motivated. Begin with WHO, WHAT, WHERE. For example, if Liam is motivated for tickle. Ask him, “Who do you want to tickle you?”

Continue to help Liam with his receptive language.

· Continue to give Liam directions and have him practice his independence and tasks throughout the day.

· Make note of how often Liam responds to your direction.

Program Goals for Duchis

Drop all Language goals. J

· Duchis has proven she knows the formula for her language goals. Let’s help her to use language for the love of communicating not simply for the production of words or responding to requests.

· Back off on asking questions.

· Model language by commenting on what Duch does as well as what you are doing.

Help Duchis to joyfully participate in games.

· Help Duchis to take her play to the next level.

· Act as an 8 year old playmate and jump right in making suggestions, sharing your opinion, and playing with her things. As you insert yourself into the play this way you put less verbal demands on her but challenge her to deepen her play skills.

· Let Duchis show you what she wants to do and build upon her ideas by adding one suggestion that you think is fun.

· Bring in props that will support the imagination games you may play. (E.g. cardboard box as a camera, an action board).

· Write things down, write stories, scripts. Writing helps her to ground what is happening in the game.

· Play skills are directly related to language skills (Ingersol, 2007).

*** REMEMBER PIANO and HANDWRITING PRACTICE ***