Wishfull thinking

Lou has been struggling with my role when we are at the nature center. I pulled out an old trick from the classroom to help him out. When another parent saw it and I explained how it worked, she said it sounded like 'wishful thinking' and I guess in a lot of ways it is. I used to make these 'storyboards' with my students with autism or other special needs that appreciated consistency and planning ahead. Who doesn't like consistency and planning ahead though.

I helped Lou make up a story (if he was older he would have had more of a role here) about what our time at the nature center should be like. Hubby has already pointed out my spelling error... 5 points if you see it. It's detailed, who will sit where, and lays out exactly what is expected of him at each time.

The story is then illustrated and we read it. A lot. We read it, we talk about what the different people in the pictures are doing. We read it again. We read it before we leave, we read it when we get there. Lou looks at it and tells the story to himself.

I want to say it's helping. That may also be because I have had a volunteer helper the past few weeks. Her extra attention changes his behaviors I think. The real test will be next week when we are back at the nature center without the volunteer. Here's to wishful thinking.