Wednesday, August 4, 2010

E. update


E. has come a long way in some areas and not so far in others. He is really starting to talk a lot more and has a really good vocabulary. One of the funny things he does is ask something like, "Are we going to the park? Or no?". I realized he gets that from me, when I ask him many questions repeatedly trying to get an answer. This is one of his weaknesses, answering questions. He really struggles with this. If given a multiple choice question, he does ok, but if I ask an open ended question, he just can't get out an answer most of the time. This was an area I noticed he struggled with during his preschool evaluation. They asked questions like "What does a clock do?", "What do you do when you are tired?" Even if I ask something like, "What's your name?" (we are working on this skill for his younger brother S.) he will answer the question incorrectly at times. Last night he answered "four". I think he was getting confused because we have also been working on their ages.

I have realized that if we want E. to make good choices, we need to remind him of the rules EVERY TIME. I feel like such a nag! Every time he is riding his bike outside we need to remind him of the boundaries. Every time it is bedtime we need to remind him to be quiet and not talk to his sleeping little brother. Every time we eat a meal we need to remind him to take little bites. Every time we go out in public we need to remind him to not hug strangers. Sometimes we forget to remind him, and he makes a bad choice. And he acts as if he didn't know! Maybe he does and we are being bamboozled. He still has a consequence for his bad choice though. But I just don't get why, after all this time of getting in trouble for the same bad choice over and over, wouldn't you start making the right one?

E. has had a great summer. He has been having a good time riding his little bike with training wheels, exploring outside, going to the zoo, and spent a few nights with Grandma and Grandpa all by himself! He is so excited to start preschool again in September. He will be going in the afternoons, four days a week.

2 comments:

Kathy Cassel said...

I have the same question about Kaleb--when he gets in trouble for doing something, wouldn't you think he wouldn't repeat the action? Yet he will. And he sits and watches the others have fun. Go figure.

Anonymous said...

We're in the same place w/ his friend on the other side of the mountains. We often need to remind ourselves where he was when he first arrived home, so that we can SEE and be reminded of the progress. That gives us a sense of hope that we are at least moving in the right direction! Yeah! : )

K : )