LIAM’S GOALS FOR JANUARY
1.
All
we will do with PRETEND PLAY
1a. Enjoy and celebrate all those moments when Liam is truly CONNECTED
to you.
***Remember that beyond
language and playing skills and academic skills, what we want is for Liam to
realize how fun it is to connect to friends.
***Story of Liam with Alex
hiding pieces in her hands and Liam having to pull her fingers and giggling and
looking and her and her hand.
Two important skills in joint attention are following eye gaze and identifying intention. The ability to share gaze with another individual is an important skill in establishing reference. The ability to identify intention is important in a child's ability to learn language and direct the attention of others.
1b. Lengthen his attention span in one activity.
Choose a theme for your game
and keep building on it to increase Liam’s attention span. He is 8 years old
and attention span is 5 minutes * age, so 40
minutes. If he can play a game for 40 minutes or more, his attention span
is typical for his age.
One way to make a game bigger
is to combine your original idea with ideas he suggests, which could be any
works or comments he makes during the play. Remember when we did this with Duch
when she was scripting a lot. Anything she said, we built on it. Take Liam’s words are comments and
suggestions. If you really see no connection between what he is saying and your
game, then you could acknowledge: “I see you are thinking about shapes” and keep
bringing this attention to the game.
1c. Strengthen his
receptive language.
He is understanding everything
we say. As part of the game, keep giving him jobs to do, specially 2-step
instructions. He is very good with 1-step instructions. Let’s give him more
practice with 2-steps ones.
Continue to have Liam practice his independence and tasks
throughout the day: getting dressed, brushing his teeth, eating by himself,
bringing the plates down, cleaning up, making his bed, etc.
As part of the game, keep
using silly words, silly sound effects, silly movements, and motivate Liam to
imitate. Also, he is more interested in using his hands for sign language and
has a better control of his hands. Use the sign-language cards/books, the
feeling cards, the animal hats, and any other props that would involve games of
imitation of silly sounds or movements.
1e. Inspire Liam’s
commenting and sharing opinions.
Needs versus Opinions:
Liam uses language to get her needs met (e.g., he is hungry, he is thirsty, he
wants a door to be open, he wants to go outside, he wants to go to the car, he
wants a specific shirt, he is looking for a book, etc).
What we want now is to know
more of what Liam is thinking and what his opinions are. So, we are going to
use techniques for motivating him to share comments and opinions with us.
1.
Make
comments yourself: “This is fun”, “I
love this game”, “This is silly”
2.
Leave
space for Liam’s spontaneous comments. Don’t talk all the time, leave moments
of silence for Liam to say what he thinks. Be aware of how much you talk versus
how much silence space you leave for him.
3.
Testing questions versus description
questions: Ask follow-up
questions, not with the intention of testing him, but in those situations when
you want more details. WHO / WHAT /
WHERE / WHY questions. Example: Shampaigne’s “show and tell game.” Be aware to
not bombard him with questions, but ask for clarifications when you need more
information. Example:
Mom: Time to get dressed, Liam.
Liam: Shirt
Mom: What shirt do you want to wear today?
Liam: Green Shirt
Mom: Great, let’s look for it.
Liam: Soft
Mom: Yes, this green shirt IS soft. You like
soft shirts.
DUSYA’S GOALS FOR JANUARY
The feedback from school is
that Dusya needs to focus more on her work and finish it independently; she
needs to increase her attention span for her work. She gets distracted easily
when given a worksheet to work on their own.
Suggestion from Megan:
Introduce Dusya to the idea of homework, so that we get to practice attention
span for worksheets at work. Every afternoon, after some relaxing time, and
before dinner and electronics, we will tell her that it is time for homework. At
the beginning she will complain a lot, but it will get better. We can empathize
with her and tell her we understand she wants to play, but that she is in
school and kids in school do homework to practice all they are learning. Use
her workbooks in her drawer. I am thinking to even send the page back to school
every day so that she sees that it is really homework.
