Matthew began working with a new speech group two weeks ago. The first sessions have gone very well. As often with something new Matthew is reluctant to engage and participate. Previously, in the public school setting, this lack of engagement often led to problems as their reaction to it was “Matthew, you HAVE to do this, you MUST complete this task at this time with the rest of your classmates.” While I completely support Matthew doing tasks with his peers, the attitude of “it is my way or the highway” just does not resonate with Matthew. It is sure to trigger inappropriate confrontational behavior in Matthew, which in the past often escalated into a bad situation that the teachers were unable to handle and address correctly. With Matthew’s new Speech Pathologists, there are two of them who are coming to my home, their approach is 180 degrees different. The both of them bring a lot of energy to the session. If Matthew does not engage, they continue with the lesson as if he is there, until Matthew’s curiosity gets the best of him and he joins in. There is no, “you must do this!” Instead they earn a response from Matthew, get him completely engrossed in the lesson, and next thing Matthew realizes is that it is time for the lesson to end. The Speech Pathologists have accomplished the lessons goals and completed these goals on their terms, not the way Matthew wanted it done or at the pace Matthew wanted to work at. The Speech Pathologists are in complete control of the lesson and Matthew has learned a lot in the all of the lessons so far. This methodology is something I have always advocated is the best way to teach and engage Matthew in anything. For Matthew’s relaxation time these past two days he is completing water experiments with a K’nex design he created. Matthew latest idea was to create a “container” with a K’nex frame and using packaging tape as the walls to determine if the “container” would hold water. Matthew discovered that while it would hold some water there was not a way to overcome many of the leaks, no matter how much tape was used. It was a good hypothesis, and Matthew also learned that a negative result often leads to learning more than a positive result. Finally, Matthew helped me yesterday giving his kittens a bath. Matthew’s kittens, like many other strange things about them, actually like taking a bath, but it is very wet and messy. Matthew helped me shampoo the kittens and dry them off. Matthew and the kittens had lots of fun.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 03:46:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015