When working with children with special needs, it is always important to
note that progress could be gradual or immediate, but consistency with
adopted practice is key. Parents become worried when they realize that their kids have been going through
sessions of intervention and they can see little or no progress.
However, when the change is obvious, they complain that it is
inconsistent.
I get lots of phone calls from parents and caregivers with such concerns and I try to provide professional recommendations to the best of my ability particularly when I'm given adequate information, observations works better for me though.
The other day, I got these three different phone calls from the same parent in less than 15 hours.
4:00pm on Thursday...
Mum: Hey Lola, Uche (pseudonym) was with me in my bathroom early this morning while I was trying to clean up. He noticed the toothbrushes on the rack and said “brush teeth” (ordinarily, he throws lots of tantrum when it’s time to brush his teeth) so I hurried to get his tooth brush and we had fun brushing his teeth together. See? I didn’t have to reinforce him! Yay!!! We are making progress. I just wanted to say "thank you," I’ll talk to you later…bye.
(As I listened patiently, I was super-excited for Uche’s mum)
Lola: Happy for you! Bye.
7:00pm same Thursday...
Mum: Hello Lola, We’ve been trying to get Uche to brush his teeth for the past hour and it’s been tough!
Lola: You should try using the reward system.
Mum: We did! I told him he will get to watch Barney after brushing but he refused, I even showed him his favourite chocolate and was willing to let him eat it after brushing but it didn’t work! I think he is regressing. I have tried everything I know to do, I think I’ll just let him be…I am tired, I pray he’ll agree to brush tomorrow. Goodnight.
Lola: Okay. Have a good one!
8:30am on Friday...
Mum: Lola, we had a good time brushing his teeth this morning and all Uche wanted was to hold on to his toy phone while brushing...this boy is so unpredictable, I pray that everything goes well in the evening.
There are several reasons why most people working with children with disabilities may not see desired changes in these children. The above conversation and other experiences leads me to some very important topics that I will be sharing on my blog for the next couple of weeks. First of these topics is 'Motivation.'
Motivation.
Everyone loves to be motivated. The reason most people go to work every day is because they expect to get paid. I wouldn’t embark on a 20 minutes drive to the cinema or pay money for a movie that does not feature at least one of my favorite actors. This is the same for little children too (with or without disabilities). When a little child says “dada” for the first time, everyone around that child cheers him up and get all excited, this kind of attention serves as a form of motivation for the child to say more words.
Motivation is a major factor for all children when learning. Motivating a child with autism can be rather challenging for a number of reasons. For instance, I have found that children with autism are often not motivated by social reinforcement such as attention, praise, affection or other activities that interest other typical kids. However, this is not enough reason for parents, therapists, teachers and other caregivers to conclude that nothing motivates these children. Every child has unique interests and preferences but it requires creativity, time and dedication to determine such interests especially when the reinforcers may appear inefficient or limited. (Read more on the types of reinforcement and the common challenges of reinforcement in my next post).
I get lots of phone calls from parents and caregivers with such concerns and I try to provide professional recommendations to the best of my ability particularly when I'm given adequate information, observations works better for me though.
The other day, I got these three different phone calls from the same parent in less than 15 hours.
4:00pm on Thursday...
Mum: Hey Lola, Uche (pseudonym) was with me in my bathroom early this morning while I was trying to clean up. He noticed the toothbrushes on the rack and said “brush teeth” (ordinarily, he throws lots of tantrum when it’s time to brush his teeth) so I hurried to get his tooth brush and we had fun brushing his teeth together. See? I didn’t have to reinforce him! Yay!!! We are making progress. I just wanted to say "thank you," I’ll talk to you later…bye.
(As I listened patiently, I was super-excited for Uche’s mum)
Lola: Happy for you! Bye.
7:00pm same Thursday...
Mum: Hello Lola, We’ve been trying to get Uche to brush his teeth for the past hour and it’s been tough!
Lola: You should try using the reward system.
Mum: We did! I told him he will get to watch Barney after brushing but he refused, I even showed him his favourite chocolate and was willing to let him eat it after brushing but it didn’t work! I think he is regressing. I have tried everything I know to do, I think I’ll just let him be…I am tired, I pray he’ll agree to brush tomorrow. Goodnight.
Lola: Okay. Have a good one!
8:30am on Friday...
Mum: Lola, we had a good time brushing his teeth this morning and all Uche wanted was to hold on to his toy phone while brushing...this boy is so unpredictable, I pray that everything goes well in the evening.
There are several reasons why most people working with children with disabilities may not see desired changes in these children. The above conversation and other experiences leads me to some very important topics that I will be sharing on my blog for the next couple of weeks. First of these topics is 'Motivation.'
Motivation.
Everyone loves to be motivated. The reason most people go to work every day is because they expect to get paid. I wouldn’t embark on a 20 minutes drive to the cinema or pay money for a movie that does not feature at least one of my favorite actors. This is the same for little children too (with or without disabilities). When a little child says “dada” for the first time, everyone around that child cheers him up and get all excited, this kind of attention serves as a form of motivation for the child to say more words.
Motivation is a major factor for all children when learning. Motivating a child with autism can be rather challenging for a number of reasons. For instance, I have found that children with autism are often not motivated by social reinforcement such as attention, praise, affection or other activities that interest other typical kids. However, this is not enough reason for parents, therapists, teachers and other caregivers to conclude that nothing motivates these children. Every child has unique interests and preferences but it requires creativity, time and dedication to determine such interests especially when the reinforcers may appear inefficient or limited. (Read more on the types of reinforcement and the common challenges of reinforcement in my next post).
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