Here’s a little article that succinctly sums up why homeschooling works for us: Why Homeschooling Lowers Costs In Time, Money and Stress.
© copyright 2009 www.renegade-scholar.com Homeschooling Lowers Costs In Time, Money, Stress
Making Peace with Autism: One Family’s Story of Struggle, Discovery, and Unexpected Gifts by Susan Senator is a memoir of the Senator family’s experience with their eldest child Nat, who has an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Senator’s compassionate writing style takes you from Nat’s infancy until his adolescence.
Making Peace with Autism is [...]
The Basic Course on the DIR/Floortime Model will be available online for six weeks from April 1 through May 13, 2009. I have wanted to do take a Floortime course for some time. It’s exciting to see that it will be online- that’s my kind of class.
I’m not sure if I’m going to [...]
Art, Homeschooling Comments (0)
There has been a lot of coloring over here. Tremendo has started coloring and writing some letters too. The letters he’s written so far are M, L, and the first letter of his name. He really likes M and L because of Mario and Luigi. We’ve been working with Handwriting Without Tears‘ wood sticks.
Tremendo is coloring spiderman red and green.
For years Kamikaze called crayons, “colorings”. Sometimes it still slips out. Kamikaze has been coloring in coloring books in their entirety and then individually ripping the pages out. Perhaps he prefers to put them in his own order? Well, since they’re not bound together anymore there is always an occasional page flying loose somewhere. When he comes across one, Tremendo likes roll it into a tube and carry it around. I imagine he’s pretending they’re treasure maps. We’ve resorted to calling them colorings. Coloring book pages or sheets just doesn’t sound as good.
Ingrid @ July 3, 2009
Autism, Communication, Floortime Comments (2)
How to End a Floortime Session:
Step 1. Be really excited that Mami is playing with you.
Step 2. Realize that you need to pee.
Step 3. Fight it with all your might and keep playing.
Step 4. Ignore Mami’s suggestion that you need to pee.
Step 5. Pee in the bookcase when you can’t take it anymore.
Stress ball we played with, Engaging Autism and The Affect-Based Language Curriculum by Stanley Greenspan
Today I tried to take advantage that Vic took the older two to the park so that Sweet Coco and I could do Floortime. I haven’t really developed a Floortime schedule or anything but I figured I’d better start whenever I get the chance even if we don’t end up having a full session. This session lasted about 8-10 minutes (see above quote).
We played Fetch using the above stress ball. Sweet Coco has been drawn to the ball lately and likes to squeeze it and throw it around. Today it was pretty easy for him to share it with me. We began by playing catch but he was too excited to maintain a “throwing distance” and opted instead to just hand me the ball. He was also too excited after the first few minutes to maintain a “catching distance”, opting to stand right in front of me after handing me the ball. So I started throwing the ball across the room and enthusiastically asking him to bring me the ball. Whenever he did it I would clap and say, “Yay!” Yay is a big motivator for him. It was for Kamikaze too. Tremendo on the other hand seemed to hate cheering/praise until very recently.
During the session Sweet Coco also said, “catch”, “throw”, “ball” and “go get it”. Him running after the ball instead of just catching it helped him get exercise which is important because he has low muscle tone. Running after the ball and finding it also helps his visual perception. He has to scan the room or follow the ball with his eyes to see where it lands. And most in line with the Floortime goals, he’s opening and closing circles of communication every time he goes after the ball and brings it back to me. I’ll start expanding this game by working up to having him say, “Go” or “Throw” when he’s waiting for the ball.
I purchased Engaging Autism: Using the Floortime Approach to Help Children Relate, Communicate, and Think by Stanley Greenspan in order to get more inspiration. I also got The Affect-Based Language Curriculum [ABLC]: An Interactive Program for Families, Therapists and Teachers (2nd edition) which is also by Stanley Greenspan. I decided to get the ABLC because I learned that it is intended for use at home regardless of now non-verbal the child is. I probably could’ve also used this a couple of years ago but I had already bought Teach Me Language (which I ended up not using because according to the introduction, a child must be labeling and repeating consistently in order for the program to work).
Something that makes me excited about the ABLC is the emotional/affect component. I have noticed that Tremendo and Sweet Coco are more likely to talk if they are upset about and demanding something. So obviously keying into positive emotions while encouraging speech will help them produce more language in pleasant contexts.
Ingrid @ May 19, 2009
Floortime, Sensory Integration Comments (0)
Things have been really busy here. My grandmother passed and so we had to make a couple of trips to see her. The boys are full on into their spring fever mode. I have noticed that every spring the kids go into big time sensory seeking behavior. Last year, I had the flu (I had never been so sick in my life) and Tremendo flooded the kitchen and dining area with the sink spray while Kamikaze and Sweet Coco played in the water. I call that The Flood of 2008. This year it was The Ketchup Bloodbath.
The Ketchup Bloodbath- it was much worse than it looks.
Everyone on the block heard my shock upon THAT discovery! I must plan for this next year. I need to get out the The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun and make a list of some stuff we can do.
I also signed up for the Floortime Basic Training Course. I just finished the first lecture and am remembering what I’ve read in The Child With Special Needs. It was a good refresher and I’m excited to get down to the nitty gritty of creating a program based on the kids’ individual differences.
Ingrid @ April 18, 2009
