A few weeks ago, I wrote about how electronic devices are a motivation for the Monster. (See What’s My Motivation) And, indeed, they are – it’s something that we know he’ll happily play with and devote attention to, and that he’s at least picking up a few good things from.
On the other hand, the electronics are not a motivation when it comes to his homework. This still has been an ongoing struggle, and while I do sympathize… he has to get it done. Continue reading
All of us, I’m sure, have had the “how to boil a frog” experience at some point. Gradual changes are easily ignored until they’re past where we’d normally notice.
It’s hard to miss how the Monster’s verbal ability’s gotten better over the last year. He’s more often using longer constructions – admittedly, still canned sentences, but at least they’re longer and more “English-sounding” – but that’s also been dependent on his mood at a given moment. But that’s also just from what we can see when we’re around him – and that’s perhaps three to four hours a day. Continue reading
Earlier this week, given that toilet training seems to be going so well, we decided to transition the Monster into regular underwear for his trips to and from school.
Now, obviously, this wouldn’t normally be newsworthy at his age, but everyone who’s been following this blog knows how much we’ve been working to get the Monster to this point. Toileting is even one of his IEP goals. Continue reading
Most of the time, the Monster’s nicely compliant with what we want him to do. Lately, however, he’s started to be more defiant when it comes to doing what we ask, and that’s definitely a step backwards with regards to how his behavior’s going. Continue reading
Because the Monster is a child with Autism, we end up being in a number of research studies.
Some of these studies involve the Monster – they include new tests to see just how his Autism affects him, and tracking to see what he does and doesn’t pick up (and how) in an intellectual sense. Continue reading
This weekend was really the first ‘nice’ weekend of the year (if you’re into all that ‘go and play outside’ crap – I could deal with a few more weeks of cold-and-dry weather myself for my curling), so after spending Saturday with prepping to go to the birthday party, we decided yesterday mandated an out-of-house trip.
And we left it to the Monster to pick where we were going. Were we going to go to the Zoo, or go to the park? Continue reading
We took the Monster to a friend’s birthday party yesterday…
We have a number of friends who have children the same age as the Monster, and make sure to include our child along with their children’s friends, even if the Monster isn’t quite necessarily in a ‘friend’ mode. Continue reading
We’re sending the Monster to summer camp again this year.
Last year, his summer was divided between the camp at the JCC – trying to give him at least a little bit of a ‘normal’ Jewish environment – and a speech/language program run by Towson University. This meant running different directions on different days, but it was good for him and kept him occupied in the mornings. Continue reading
One refrain that we hear frequently when dealing with children who have Autism is that we should limit the choices we offer them. It’s meant as a constructive mechanism to ensure that they’re not overwhelmed with trying to decide, and helps to encourage verbal communication with children with language delays.
It’s also something that, after an entire day stuck in the house with the Monster, I’ve discovered that both the wife and I suck absolutely at. Continue reading
Since it’s a snow day here in Charm City, I’m working from home.
Not that we have all that much snow, mind you – it’s been blustery and there’s quite a bit coming down, but none of it is sticking where we live. I could have easily gone to work, but the Monster’s school is closed as a precaution, and so I’m home to lend a helping hand. Continue reading