Mary, Quinn's wonderful occupational therapist, visited him at preschool today to get some sense of why he is acting aggressively toward the other kids - we've had some reports of eye-poking and pushing. I figured it was tied to his sensory needs, which seem to be really great when he's around other kids. Mary had a totally different - and totally unexpected - observation: She thinks it ties to his communication challenges. Her theory is that he doesn't know how to tell kids what he wants, so he either shows them with physical force or just plain ignores them. Thinking that through, it makes a lot of sense. He interacts really well with adults, who are patient and help draw out of him what he's trying to say, but very, very little with other kids.
Her idea is to work more intensively on bringing up his verbal communication skills.
I wish we had done this sooner! Quinn does so well at Mary's office that she is seeing him less and less. But today she saw very clearly that he still needs a lot of intervention. That's good for all of us, I think!
3 comments:
Have you used any sign language?
Speaking in concept rather than definition really helped my two early on.
We did sign early on, Donetta, but had stopped - maybe too soon! Quinn seems to understand what we're saying, it's getting him to talk about it that's the challenge. But I'll pull out my sign language book - maybe trying some more advanced signs will help - thanks for the idea!
We have been working on the same thing with our daughter's therapist. Our daughter does great with other adults, but with other kids she shuts down and withdraws and acts out. Good luck! I know it will happen, it just takes time!
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