Re: Dtt-NET Rebuilding a Positive Attitude

[Guest guest]

At 09:54 AM 2/12/00 EST, OMara@... wrote:

>From: OMara@...

>

>Jennie,

> In 6 years of ABA programming we have hit the wall several times. The

>most recent time was just a few months ago. Regaining a positive attitude

on

>the part of the kid and therapists became my most important goal.

,

It's been six years of ABA/DTT for us as well. Wow. No wonder I am tired.

And, we've revamped things before. I guess I just feel like we were making

some progress, evident, yet he was obviously losing interest and needed a

lot more stress on communication, so we felt the DTT/NET method offered us

a new way of looking at what we hoped to accomplish and perhaps less

boredom for Isaac. The problem is, I think he feels more lost, and also

bombarded by receptive expectations. I have to remember no matter WHAT I

read here, Isaac is Isaac, and may not be able to handle the same field or

the same amount of information processing. He looks utterly exhausted at

times, trying to pay attention to what is the relevent information and last

week, all he did was point to EVERY card on the field randomly, regardless

of our prompt levels. He looked almost haggard, and between some great

emails and posts on the list, I am re-evaluating my evaluation. LOL

I think your ideas for a fresh start for instance and rebuilding a

postitive attitude are wonderful. The way I feel this week, is if somebody

asked me about ABA in any form based on the last two weeks in particular, I

would probably say it was horrid. And, yet I have seen him come too far to

think that deep down, but this has been a difficult transition.

Firstly, I am going back and figuring out where we were when he was flying

high, and going just a step back from that. Then, I am going to take your

advice, and make a list of everything he likes to do, that makes him happy,

but is productive, and that is interactive.

Isaac went to the movie, Galaxy Quest the other night and was perfect.

He went to an arcade at a mall last night, and did pretty well, although he

was a bit stimmy. Of course that is a more stimulating place in many ways,

but he tried several games, obviously many needing HOH type assistance,

still he enjoyed himself. So, I know he can still spend time with the

therapists and enjoy them. He just hates when they take him to the table.

I made folders, Monday-Sunday folders, and am slipping in work, DTT and

otherwise, and some simple NET type activities. Light on the intensity and

time spent sitting. I am adding some more motion based activities, as well

as trying to figure out how to add a lot more choice for him. I also, made

up three baggies with very simple books he likes, I mean very simple, and

then a short list of RFFC type questions, basically one or two for each or

most pages in the short books. This way, the therapists can start

practicing doing some RFFC type things loosely, in a more relaxed way, and

not necessarily at the table. However, since it's a reading time, I thought

we'd set a timer, and let the timer be the boss, but for a limited time, so

he does get some practice identifying some things in books. Right now, he

can't do that. The other thing I found was a photo album with two plastic

inserts per page. I am putting in some flash cards in the album and he will

only have to point to a field of two. I figure this way he is learning to

look at things in a more page oriented format, be less overwhelmed and once

again, he can turn the pages and look at the cards for as long or as short

a time as he is comfortable. Plus, he can take it in the car, and look at

them himself if he wants.

Isaac can not read, beyond his sight word volcabulary, still limited, but

he has mostly learned the concept of, FIRST, NEXT and maybe we can help

him, help us make a visual list of things to do. Since he has no concept of

five, ten or fifteen minutes really, I am not sure if allowing him to pick

the time spent on anything would be as helpful, as keeping it short UNLESS

he is having a behavioral problem, and needs to calm down and finish on a

good note.

It's hard with an older child, because I believe some of his irritablity at

being directed all day, is a natural pre-teen reaction. It still shocks me

to think that in three months, he will be a teenager. So, naturally, he is

tired of sitting in the chair and pointing to things, etc.

I'll be playing around with the concepts of how to still stay on track, yet

allow him more freedom of choice and how to balance seat work and motion,

DTT, chores, recreation and NET. Our problem as always is I feel incredibly

overburdened, and nobody on the team has a good sense of what to do,

because of lack of experience. We all agree, he just is tired and resents

working, yet he gets very excited to see the therapists, greets them warmly

with no prompting, and is not eager to see them go in general.

Jennie

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/12/00 11:19:25 AM Central Standard Time,

jennie@... writes:

> It's hard with an older child, because I believe some of his irritablity at

> being directed all day, is a natural pre-teen reaction. It still shocks me

> to think that in three months, he will be a teenager. So, naturally, he is

> tired of sitting in the chair and pointing to things, etc.

Jennie,

I think you're right to attribute at least part of the negativity to

" typical " developmental changes that occur in 12-15 year olds. I have a

daughter who will be 13 in June and I really have to plan and ponder

strategies to try and motivate her to do the things I think are right for

her. And it does not always work the way I hope with her either.

Colin does not really understand the # of minutes he chooses but I think

he does understand that 5 minutes is short, 10 minutes is medium and 15

minutes is relatively long. He also developed table-phobia. We are doing

play type things at the table and drill/homework type stuff in other

locations.

Sometimes I wish some kind of ultimate super expert would materialize

that would tell me what to do and how to do it. Then I realize that I am the

only person that even remotely resembles an expert on all Colin's issues,

history etc. So most days I am willing to continue in the role of team

leader but I do wish there weren't quite so many teams.