I haven’t seen the movie yet – as I don’t think I want to have anything interfere with my impression of Temple Grandin.

I saw Temple speak years ago….  before she became a star…..  and what sticks in my mind the most was her discussion of how she thinks….  in pictures….  hence her book “thinking in pictures”

She refers to her thought process as going back in her mind, retrieving a video tape from her mind’s library and then playing the proper video to think….  This hit me like a 2×4 across the head…. 

I am mostly an auditory thinker….. so I guess it didn’t dawn on me that this could be so impactful on educating,  Now, when I teach my son, I always have visuals.  Of course, he was most successful with video, but after years of strictly video, we have been able to branch out into many other inputs including auditory.  But the learning is always faster with visual inputs ….. 

What we need to realize is that not all people think alike – and we need to find each child’s talent and teach to that talent…..  and in my son’s case, visual is the way to go…

If you have a chance and you think you may know someone who requires visual teaching, watch this clip and read her book.   It really is very moving.

http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds.html

The Finished Project

Sorry to be repetitive – but I think society needs a 2×4 to get this….   not you….  but the higher ups…..  you know .. the ones who make the decisions on how to educate our children ….

The teachers get it … the parents get it… and certainly the children get it!

Here is an example…. 

My son built this airplane today – his first lego project since about 14 months of age (hes 11 now)

And this is how he did it…..

VISUAL instructions

I could have explained to him how to build this lego plane – until  I was blue in the face….. and the plane would never have been finished….

But Lego gets it – so they include visual instructions – to complete a task!  

Imagine what would happen if we did this in school ….

So – once again, I am promoting visual instructions – in many formats – pictures, video (my favorite), signs, etc….

The science says it works, the children say it works, even the toy companies utilize it!    So, exactly when do you think we will start using it in our schools?  I guess I just need to work much faster….

Sharing with you a new link that was posted today…

It was very touching to me and made my day …. knowing that I had made a difference….

http://autisminautumn.com/home/watch-me-learn.html

Earlier this week my husband wanted to take my son out to practice hitting baseballs.  My husband is an ex-minor baseball league player and dreams of his son being a major league player.

My husband approached the situation by telling Brett that they were going out to practice baseball.  My husband’s statement was met with a very adamant verbal objection from my son.  The scenario developed into a screaming match between the two of them and my husband’s threats that there would be no computer or television time for Brett.  Absolutely being addicted to television and the computer, Brett became hysterical and the situation basically exploded.  My furious husband was ranting and raving, and Brett was crying uncontrollably….  This went on for about twenty minutes.

Once again, I had to intervene and try to calm both of them.  I explained to my husband for the thousandth time that Brett is not dreaming of being a baseball player and that hitting balls on a 90 degree summer day was not his idea of fun.  Brett was more difficult to console.

After calming Brett down, he and I proceeded to get out the water balloons that are shaped and printed to look like baseballs.  We filled15 water balloons and put them in a cooler – all of course unbeknownst to my husband.  Brett happily filled the balloons, placed them in a cooler and began to get ready to go practice baseball.  He was actually excited about pulling a prank on his father by throwing water balloons at him that appeared to be baseballs!

Brett hopped in the car all prepared to play baseball!

They went off to the field, Brett hit the first three balls out of the park into right field and both of them came home soaking wet 45 minutes later!

What my husband forgot was that teaching and learning only happen when it is of interest to the learner!  When the learner is a child, FUN is the key component to success!~  The financial cost to this successful learning experience was about $1 – a pretty good investment!

Lessons Learned:  Incent child to participate, motivate child and remember that punishment is not the answer to obtain desired behaviors…..  think about how an adult would respond ….  If your boss told you to do something and threatened you, you would be left with anger and resentment – not a motivated attitude to complete the task!  Put yourself in the child’s shoes!

Social skills:  When teaching any skill, social skills are inherently included in your teaching.  Our actions and language are social skills.  Often we forget that our behavior is a model for a child or the person we are interacting with.  It is crucial that we keep this in mind and try our very best to act in an appropriate and socially acceptable manner.

Watch OUT Derek Jeter! Here I come!

02-we-are-the-champions

Today is a day of glory for us – a day of celebrating success achieved over a course of 9 years. For the past 9 years, we have tirelessly worked at teaching my son language, motor skills, attention skills, social skills, life skills and much much more. Those 9 years of teaching were also coupled with researching and implementing medical treatments for the many medical conditions that are a part of autism.

There were many professionals from various fields who said it couldn’t be done. This post is being written for those of you out there who hopefully doubt the nay-sayers and for those of you who have a nagging feeling in your gut that is telling you that the professionals may not have all of the answers and that you may some of the answers yourself. This story of a child’s accomplishments serves the purpose of stirring those gut feelings and encouraging you to follow your gut!

By the age of 4 1/2, three different doctors affiliated with three very reputable institutions advised me that my son’s condition would not change and simply encouraged me to accept his condition and to be realistic about his not so optimistic future.

Yesterday at Indiana University, Brett tool 3rd place in the one meter and three meter events at AAU Diving Nationals for 11 year old boys. A far cry from the institutional life he was slotted for! While his dives were beautiful and 3rd place was a huge accomplishment, it paled in comparison to the real life social skills that Brett demonstrated. There was probably not one single person in the acquatic center that understood what huge accomplishments were taking place right before their very eyes….Brett introducing himself to a peer and shaking hands, waving to the crowd when he was introduced, attending to his coach’s instructions, accepting scores that were lower than what he deserved, and on goes the list.

Brett’s performance yesterday was more like a “coming out” ceremony…. or more appropriately phrased, a “coming together” of thousands of hours of social skill training.

The last nine years have led me down paths that were down right terrifying – but along the way, I met many supporters who encouraged me to follow my mother’s intuition which ultimately led us down a path of success. Today I can say to you that every single minute of our work has been worth it. There is truly nothing more priceless than seeing my son filled with self-esteem and excelling in a very demanding event.

Today I witnessed self esteem and true confidence in my son….. how lucky am I? It didn’t start out this way though…. it started by unrolling his tightly curled finger to teach him how to point… When he learned that, I taught him how to clap and just kept going.  Each and every accomplishment was treated with praise….  and the words “You DID IT!” were heard over and over.
Every single accomplishment from the first finger point to a reverse flip dive is one more accomplishment under his belt. There will be many more…. after all, Rome was not built in a day.

Follow your gut….and praise every little accomplishment no matter how small.  Small accomplishments and self esteem are the building blocks what lies ahead!

For diving videos – a great video modeling for Brett, click here to see Greg Louganis

http://www.divingtube.com/index.php/View-Video/184/Greg-Louganis-GREATEST-DIVER-EVER.html

For information on Video modeling and teaching social skills, click here

http://www.watchmelearn.com/video-based-teaching.shtml

This is purely for your enjoyment and laughs!   I really don’t look quite like this….  but it is truly one of my favorites!  Brett learned how to draw from a home video…  I drew a house, tree and sun…. and 7 year old Grace filmed it!  That drawing became the logo for my company 

www.watchmelearn.com

 … I still have the original footage.  I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do….  and please feel free

to send yours in for others to enjoy too…

and this one is a coloring picture that Summer colored for me at a conference!

Thank you Summer!  its beautiful….

05-somebody-to-loveI continue to work on lesson plans and new ideas for this blog…  but I thought for today I would write something a bit less serious…  As a parent with a special needs child, my life is always so serious and I am rarely able to let my mind relax as it is so filled with “to do’s” for obtaining all medical and educational treatments that my son needs…. not to mention social skills activities…. 

It all gets to be so overwhelming so I decided that I would share with you what Brett is doing today….

Many of you know Brett’s background and how multiple professionals in different fields told me pretty much that he was hopeless…. along with many other negative opinions and advice.

Brett

But today, Brett is at diving camp…..  yes – springboard diving.  Brett is a nationally ranked diver – he placed 5th in the nationals last year at age 10.  He went to diving camp last week on Wed – today is his 5th day – he has learned 4 new dives – he is training with ex-olympic coach Dick Kimball.  Last night he called me and told me about his new dives….

He began diving at around age 5 – during a time in his life when he was immersed in watching video – and he was watching the diving olympics – an old tape we had when Greg Louganis was in the olympics.  This was the beginning of his diving – yes… he learned to dive from video.  For information on Video modeling seehttp://www.watchmelearn.com/video-based-teaching.shtml

Anyways – Brett is having a phenomenal time at camp – and he is excelling – something I was told he would NEVER do…

If you want to view some clips of his diving, the link below shows some of his diving from almost 2 years ago.  I will be sure to post new video very soon! 

I just want you all to know that there is hope…. and don’t let anyone tell you there isn’t.  It is summer now, try to relax a bit, enjoy your child for who he or she is, and put the serious business of caring for a special needs child in the back of your mind for a bit ….  it will be there tomorrow or in August or September waiting for you.

I need to do the same thing!  Enjoy my children!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0nBatn5vUo