While I cannot deny the many positive things that are happening these days with both kids, the challenges, AKA "big ones", often overshadow those things. Each child has one bigger issue that we are dealing with right now and some days it feels like it's all consuming.
For Colin, the big issue is behavior. One of the biggest stereotypes for people with Down Syndrome is that they can be overly affectionate and like a lot of personal contact. These days, Colin actually does not like this and people that try to be affectionate to him can actually cause some of his behaviors to emerge. At school, we've often received notes that another student was too close and he would attempt to push them away (don't get me wrong, he has been known to initiate the contact a good amount of time as well). These are never overly aggressive behaviors but we have been working on teaching him to use his words and say things like "no thank you" when other kids are trying to hug him or touch him when he does not want to. Obviously it's not appropriate to use his hands to get someone to stop doing something he doesn't want. We see his frustrations when he wants something to stop but doesn't exactly know how to ask to get it to stop. For example, the other night at the dinner table, Kailey was banging her fork on the table and it was getting Colin really frustrated. He was yelling at her and just saying "no" over and over again but she was continuing with the behavior. His voice was getting louder and louder until I told him to say "please stop Kailey" and then she actually did. I know that we need to just continue with the modifications and techniques that we've been using but it can be frustrating at times!
Kailey's big one is the potty training! Ugh, she knows exactly what she is doing and absolutely refusing to use the potty for us. She is continuously having accidents on purpose and is really resistant to being cooperative with the potty. The downside is that with both Chris and I working full time, we are unable to devote the time that we need to to just get it done. My plan is to try a bootcamp type activity over spring break to get her on the right track. She is exhausting with this potty business!
1 comment:
I'm so glad Kailey responded to the "please stop, Kailey" remark! Kids never cease to surprise me in what they will/won't respond to. I remember when Sammi was little, she used to throw everything, then we realized that perhaps it was just because she didn't know what else to do with it when she was done. So we showed her, and she responded to that. When Colin starts to see the positive responses to using his polite words, perhaps he'll be compelled to do that more often. Good luck with the potty training!! It sounds like she's being purposefully resistant. Maybe just leaving her to her own devices for a while will make her realize she can't manipulate you or push your buttons, and she'll just do what she knows is right. That made sense in my head, but didn't really come out right. Sorry...LOL
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