Now Is the Best Later

I never did get back to my blog yesterday with the time I needed to do this post. I know I can handle things around here by myself but I'm always sad when Carl is gone. The morning routine is especially difficult without him here since he is the one that usually wakes up Caleb and gets him in the right mood for the day. We'll see how things go for me this afternoon when Caleb gets home from school.

Caleb does really well when he has a routine and a schedule. Don't we all? Here are some of the things that we've been using with him.

This is a bracelet similar to the ones that his teachers wear at school. This is actually one of their old ones that they gave me. I never know what kind of reaction I'm going to get when I use the bracelet. Sometimes he responds immediately and other times he gets upset when I'm trying to tell him to stop yelling or to sit down. The good thing about the bracelet is that I know he understands every picture on there and if I just show him the picture, I don't have to worry about whether or not he heard me or understood what I said. Sometimes I let him hold the bracelet himself. This works well at church and I let him take it to Primary. The teachers say it helps a lot.

One thing that Caleb is using at school that we're trying to use more in our house is a picture schedule.

The grad student from UNL that has been coming this semester for one of her classes, made it for us. I also hired her to work with me 10-15 hours a week. I was joking with Carl that he should start calling me Professor Mom now that I have my own grad student. Anyway...this is similar to what he uses at school to help him know where to go next. Our use of this at home is not very rigid. It is helpful when Caleb gets bored or when he has done something for a long time and I want him to change activities. I tell him to check his schedule and I have a little check mark card in my pocket that I give to him. He takes it to his board (this is attached with velcro to the side of our entertainment center at Caleb's eye level) and sees what is listed. He doesn't always choose what is first on the list and that is okay. The main thing is he has the choice of what to do next, he shows me, we do it, and then he puts it in the "DONE" folder. He always says, "[piano] is D-O-N-E, spells DONE!".

You still have time to get in on this next drawing. A little bird told me that there is an Arbonne sea salt scrub ($26 value!) ready to go out to someone that has spread the word about Autism Awareness! Click here for contest details. I will draw a winner on Saturday night for announcement on Sunday's blog.

Now Is the Best Later

http://craftyconservative.blogspot.com/2007/04/now-is-best-later.html