Learning

What is better than having the world's most talented educational therapist?
Having the world's most talented educational therapist who also is gifted at ABA.

Yesterday my son was working with the genius S, his ed therapist, on math, his nemesis. But it wasn't his complete lack of number sense troubling him. "We ran straight into his diagnosis today," S told me. He got very rigid about a set of directions, and he became extremely agitated because he thought he was going to be able to write a story, and then it turned out he was actually working with word problems. Perseveration, anxiety, impulsivity -- wham.

At the end of the session, S told me something like: Sure, we didn't get as much math covered as I would like, and as an ed therapist, that could bother me. But as a behaviorist, oh my gosh, this was big. He learned how to stomp through something, to stick with it, to calm himself down when he was in sensory overload. He got through the work! That is a big deal. I am so proud of him, and I want him to know that being able to do that is important.

When Roo finishes all his work and does it calmly, he gets a reward. He definitely lost his cool for part of the time, and he didn't finish everything. I was tempted to give him the reward anyway for trying so hard. But together we decided that he would get a reward -- just not the same reward he gets when he finishes all his work calmly. Instead, I took him to the library to get a card and check out 10 books. He tried to talk me into both rewards, but when I talked him through it, he sighed deeply and put his hand on my cheek.

"Okay, mommy. Next time, I want BOTH prizes. Now, let's go get some BOOOOOKS!"
I love that kid.