I don't know what you do, but when I feel my frustration levels building (become Zen mama, become Zen mama, become Zen mama), I sometimes have enough presence of mind to recall a technique that has worked for me in the past:
Instead of reading the words and their meanings to Singularity (which would be ignored) or having him read them to me (which would lead to escape-seeking behavior), I ask him to quiz me on the meaning of the words. Somehow this turns the tables on him, and it suddenly becomes fun to see how much Mom knows. I've refined this over time, so that on my first quiz I get all of the words/concepts right. On my the second quiz (the next day), I begin to make mistakes, so that I can see if Singularity corrects me. And correcting people is one of his favorite things to do!
It can be difficult to know when the learning has been successfully accomplished, so the other thing that I do is make little flash cards for the words and their definitions and ask Singularity to match them.
OK, I'm not a trained teacher, and I have no idea if this technique has any pedagogical research to support it. However, I am the world's leading expert on relating to and working with Singularity, and this method works for us.
Does anyone have techniques that have worked for them and their children?
I had a really interesting conversation with another autism mom this evening about how she was teaching her son some words derived from the Greek word kratos (power). Since her son is a visual learner, she draws pictures. For example, for "autocracy" she drew one stick figure with an arrow pointing to many stick figures, and for "plutocracy" she drew a few stick figures with dollar signs ($) over their heads with an arrow pointing to many stick figures. It is really interesting to see how we adapt to the specific needs of our own children.
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