GROUP MEETING – MARCH 2014 - LIAM
Our previous goals:
PRETEND PLAY
campaign with 5 components:
1a. Enjoy and
celebrate all those moments when Liam is truly CONNECTED to you.
1b. Lengthen his
attention span in one activity.
1c. Strengthen his
receptive language.
1d. Strengthen his
mimicking skills.
1e. Inspire Liam’s
commenting and sharing opinions.
OUR NEW GOALS:
1. The “Fill-in-the-blank technique and
Rhetorical questions technique”:
Example: if he is complaining about
a poster that is falling or a book that is missing, we could say:
“OMG, Liam needs __________”
“We need to find some sticky ______________”
“Where could the tape be? ____________”
“The tape is in the _____________”
“Hmmmm, what do we need? ____________”
“Hah, ……, what do we need? The
teddy bear? Let’s try with the teddy bear. No, the teddy bear cannot fix this.
We need _________________”
Megan thinks that we could mix things up by not modelling so much right
now (since we have modelled lots with the pretend play), but practicing “fill
in the blank situations” both in the games and for day-to-day things. He is
better with “fill in the blacks” in relation to stories and games than in
day-to-day things.
Fill-in-the-blank and emotions
a.
Making sentences with cards and words and fill-in-the-blank
activities:
“When Martalicia comes to play,
I feel ______________________”
“When my transportation book
breaks, I feel ________________”
“I am __________________ when I
heard Dusya scream.”
“I feel __________________ when
I jump on the trampoline.”
b.
Dumb yourself down and practice situations like
this with pretend play or with books: “Liam, I can’t figure this out. Dora
looks sad, why is she sad? ______” or “Liam, I can’t figure this out. Dora’s
ice cream fell on the floor. What do you think Dora is feeling? Dora looks
___________.”
Fill-in-the-blank and “I don’t
like”
One day I brought a shirt for him to wear. He did not like this shirt,
but just communicated it to me by whining or saying “no shirt”. So, I said,
“Liam, you can tell me you don’t want this blue shirt. Tell me: “I _________”.
He responded: “I don’t like this blue shirt”.
2.
Yoga: Use
Yoga cards (white drawer on the table). Check poses with inflections
back-front-side.
3. Emotions: Use the Emotion cards (white
drawer on the table)
a.
Charades/Guessing game. The emotion cards go in
a bag. You take a card out and he needs to guess the emotion. Eventually, he
will take a card and you will guess the emotion.
b.
Keeping the emotion cards at hand to be used
when playing any pretend-play scenario, like birthday party, zoo, cooking, etc.
What emotions can we associate with parties, field trips, activities, etc?
c.
When you ask him “how do you feel?” his new
answer is “sick”. One time when I asked “where does it hurt?” he did say
“tummy”. Mary once got to play doctor
after this. What could we do when he tells us he feels sick?
4. VOLUME of his voice
The speech therapist told me that she whispered in this ear “Liam, I
cannot hear you. Please speak louder” and he started to speak at a higher
volume. Let’s tell him in a whisper when he needs to speak louder.
5. “I Like” and “I don’t like”
I have been thinking about a matching game where he needs to connect
things to “I like” and “I don’t like”. Things he likes are: pillow pets,
jumping on the trampoline, seaweed, shapes, swinging, planets, shapes, sign
language, tickles, kisses, books, vehicles, strawberries, parks, goodwill,
Target, barnes & noble, bacon, meat, tangerines, blueberries, zucchini,
cold bath.
Things he does not like are: wearing sweaters, going to Pearland
Cinema, Duchis whining, Tony screaming, raspberries, green beans, broccoli,
cleaning up, hot bath.
6. More complex concepts like:
a.
Bday parties: invitations, presents, baking, the
whole process.
b.
Right and Left. I use it for kisses on
right/left arm/legs/chicks, etc.
c.
Both. Do you want X, Y or both?
d.
He is really into shapes. We could use it for
building. Also, I will show you a starfall game about placing shapes
above/below/in front/next to/between, etc, different locations.
e.
Before and After. Could be used with days of the
week, letters, and numbers. When filling worksheets: What comes before 15? What
comes after 21? What number is between 2 and 4?
NEW TECHNIQUE FOR DUCH
For Duch, if you get into a cycle
of “c is for cookie”, for example, we could say “yes, c is for cookie and no,
you are not going to have another one”. Megan thinks that Duch wants us to get
to say “yes” to the cookie by asking us the “c is for cookie” questions, so we
need to make sure she understands that we acknowledge her question but we will
not give her a cookie. Check out the situations when she gets into cycles of “
____ is for _____”. I think they happen when she does not get what she
wants, or when she has to do something she does not want (like homework). Check
out the scenarios you have witnessed or will witness this week and we can talk
about them. It is time to help her to get rid of this rigid dialogue of “____
is for _____”.
School scenarios with pretend play:
-
Wanting something that other kids have
-
Waiting for her turn
-
Stopping other kids who are bothering her
-
Wanting to play with other kids
-
Winning a game or losing a game
-
Please and thank you
-
Being ok when we don’t get what we want (moving
on)
