Compliance?

There's an internet discussion happening on the topic of compliance. One parent pulled from an unnamed state's definition of a successful kindergartner, "success is related to being able to follow directions, sit and attend, and raise his hand for teacher help".

Children with developmental delays often aren't able to follow directions, sit and attend, and raise his/her hand for teacher help.

And they're often labeled "non-compliant" or "lazy" or "maladaptive" or a "behavior problem". They considered "unsuccessful".

And teachers push for "compliant" in order to be "successful" without looking at the developmental foundations that are shaky, that need to be practiced and experienced and put into place. (And teachers don't often know that the skills mentioned are not discreet skills; they come from a place of continuous process. Use discreet trial for discreet skills. Use a continuous process, developmental model for functions of continuous process in a developmental fashion.)

Think about the level of joint attention needed for a child to interact with teacher, peers, and self in order to be "compliant". Here's just a little bit of it: He's got to be experienced at non-verbal turn-taking, interaction, and reciprocity. He's got to understand that the teacher's perspective and objective and goals in each moment are different from his own, and those goals and objectives are largely invisible, for example, that he is expected to face forward, keep himself still and quiet. He must simultaneously process the non-verbal communication of his teacher and the peers around him, managing his body in terms of personal space with the peers around him. He's got to be a really experienced attention shifter and attention sharer. He has to understand that the teacher DOES NOT KNOW what is in HIS mind in order for him to remember to raise his hand to ask a question. To follow directions, he must process non-verbal cues and spoken language, pitch, tone, context, remember past experiences, all simultaneously, a lot of it automatic and unconscious.

Skipping the developmental foundations and going straight for behavioral compliance misses the foundations and doesn't help the child. Support the developmental foundations (look at Dr Jim's ARM pr Dr Ross Green's ALSUP) and the"compliance" will come, except that it's not really "compliance", it's the ability to interact at higher levels, to participate with other(s) and self in a higher stage of joint attention. Success and compliance two different animals.

I've been thinking about this internet chat topic all day.

So, I went to the grocery store tonight. We have a big snowstorm coming- gotta go to the grocery, ya know. *wink*And I'm standing in line at the deli counter, waiting to place my order meat and cheese, and BOOM! it hits me. The same foundations of joint attention that I wrote about, that I described earlier today as foundations for "success" in kindergarten are EXACTLY.THE.SAME. that I need to place my order at the deli. I have to know the directions (I need to take a number) and follow them (wait my turn after I take a number); I must attend to listen for when they call my number; I must raise my hand or yell or answer in some way to let them know they called my number and I am ready to be helped, ready to tell them what I want to order.

At the deli tonight, I wasn't "compliant" with a list of rules I'd memorized with the help of discreet trial. I was a successful communicator on many levels, navigating my cart among other shoppers, maintaining self-regulation and self-control while waiting my turn, responding when called upon, etc. Those are the skills that kids are expected to have when they come to kindergarten, and when they arrive without them, teachers don't know how to remediate those skills in a developmental fashion. So, they go for "compliance" and memorization of rules, instead. That's one of the reasons I homeschool.

Teaching and rewarding "compliance" for the sake of "compliance" lasts for one situation. And autism isn't a lack of discreet skills. Giving a child experience with foundations of interaction in a dynamic way carry over to new settings, are flexible and changing in new situations.

We really need to be aware of this, to know it, to want it for our kids w/ developmental delays, to guard against someone who is trying to behaviorally shape "compliance" instead of building and growing the dynamic foundations that add up to success in many situations well beyond kindergarten.

City Creek Press; a TOS Crew Review

Times Alive, Times Tables The Fun Way, from City Creek Press is a creative way to learn multipliation facts with visual stories set to music available in two formats, download ($44.95) or CD ($48.95).

We reviewed the version for instant download on a PC. The download was simple. We have had no problems with the product after downloading it onto our computer.


Take a peek at a sample:


Interestingly, my homeschooler memorized most of her multiplication facts from another rockin' video-based resource from my childhood based on rote memorization. She doesn't understand the concepts behind what she memorized, though, and for some odd reason that I cannot explain, she did not learn what I consider to be the easiest multiplication facts, the zero multiplication facts.

She is very particular to what she accepts in terms of material. She's 11, working around a first grade level for the most part, and is really sensitive to anything she deems (her term), babyish. Finding developmentally appropriate materials that she won't resist and protest is a challenge for me (and for many parents of children with special learning needs).

City Creek Press got a thumbs up, here. *smile* The videos are clever and entertaining, using the menomic device of captioned story telling and songs to illustrate multiplication facts. Times Alive reinforces lessons with problems to complete following each story, with worksheets, with pictures to paint on the computer. The stories reinforce what my daughter has learned and create new associations for her. She enjoys watching the videos. If I did not sit with her while she watched the videos, she would quickly skip the worksheets. (Child needs to be able to enter numerals from a keyboard or keypad or have assistance with that.) There is a back button, a do-again button, and a lesson list button to help with that.

The illustration of how to multiply zero has been helpful. When we work on multiplication facts, I can remind her of the Times Alive illustration to help my girl make the association and get the answer.

I am seriously considering purchasing the City Creek Press product for addition facts for my daughter.

More Crew reviews of Times Alive are available HERE.

City Creek Press gave me the Times Alive download for review purposes. I received no financial compensation for this review and am not obligated to provide a positive review.

Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free by Karen Morgan from Chronicle Books (review)

I just made the tallest gluten free, (almost) casein-free cornbread I have ever made. From scratch. And it is delicious! The recipe is one I adapted (I made my own "buttermilk" using casein-free milk-substitute and lemon juice; I did use the real butter called for in the recipe) from Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free This recipe for southern-style corn bread (page 31) is among our favorites.

Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free by Karen Morgan is a beautiful 224-page hardback cookbook that gives readers and bakers 75 recipes for desserts and pastries that are gluten free and made from scratch. The photographs inside are so gorgeous, I want to try almost every one of them. (I am not a fan of the savory caramelized alsatian onion tart.) I have blueberries in the refrigerator for the cobbler recipe, and I'll make that cobbler if there are enough blueberries left after my family has been nibbling at them. That shortbread on the cover has me thinking about strawberry shortcake, too. Or a mix of strawberries and blackberries with shortcake. (We have no organic strawberries in the supermarket at the moment; I looked for them all weekend.)

In addition to an intro, notes on ingredients, a resources section, index, and table of equivalents, Morgan gives us seven chapters covering "biscuits, muffins & sweet breads; cookies & bars; tarts, pies & cobblers; cakes, big & small; crepes & pâte à choux; custards, puddings & ice cream; and dinner-party showstoppers".

Blackbird Bakey Gluten-Free is another cookbook that we girls oooh and aaaah over together; it's quite the backdrop for relationship building in our autism intervention. Looking together at the recipes and pictures and dreaming about what we want to make and for what occasion is a wonderful experience. The fact that we can make something that ALL of us can eat makes it even better. ;)

Check out some of the photos here. You'll want to own the cookbook when you see the photos. ;)

Morgan uses a different blend/ratio of flours for each recipe, which sets her recipes apart from the folks who develop a blend that you mix, store, and have ready to use in any recipe. While having that one blend ready to go is convenient, (and I do like convenience!), having recipes that are developed individually is attractive, too, because I trust that they've been tested and tested and that the recipe developer knows the recipes are better for the flour blend having been individualized for each recipe. I think there's room for both kinds of gluten-free cookbooks on my bookshelf.

I seem to be stuck on blogging about the topic of cornbread recipes. I have a one recipe that is good fried on the stove in a little oil, like johnnycakes, yet I keep searching for a baked cornbread recipe that is a little more like what I grew up with. This one's closer to the one my grandmother makes. (We never put a can of whole kernel corn in our cornbread growing up; the corn adds something special.)

No, this is not an allergen free cookbook. If you, like me, are more than gluten-free, you'll need to know how to make your own substitutes. Gluten-free recipes are a great starting point, though, when the flour substitutions have already been made for me. I sense myself becoming braver than I used to be; I am ready to try Morgan's strawberry tartlets with vanilla pastry cream using coconut based milks instead of cream and half-and-half.

My friend Amy made the lemon bars from Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free. Click here to read about the lemon bars.

Check out the Blackbird Bakery web site here; follow on facebook here. Morgan provides readers hints, tips, and recipes, and offers an occasional giveaway.

Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free is a fantastic cookbook for gluten-free baking. I look forward to baking my way through it.

Chronicle Books sent me a copy of Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free for review purposes. I am not paid for this review and am not obligated to provide a positive review.

Perspectives and Perspective Taking

Staying present and in-the-moment is a bit of a challenge for me right now. I'm in my own little world and that world is a place of unknown at the moment. We're moving. I have a gazillion things to think about, to find out, to do. My to-do list seems to exponentially multiply every few days.

I try to balance what I need to do today with this ever-growing to-do list for the move, and I find myself absorbed with researching the things I need to know, want to know, as we choose a suburb, a neighborhood at our destination location. Are there homeschool supports there? Autism supports? Ice skating? Baseball? Access to GFCFSF food shopping? For my school-building schoolers, I have another list. I feel super-focused on the there, and focusing on here is requires a bit of effort.

When Li'l Bit regressed into autism, seemed to shut everything out in order to super-focus on certain items. I always thought she shut out the rest of us, the rest of her world, but now, I have a different perspective. Maybe she had such a focus on her favorite items, she had no way to balance the rest of us, the rest of her world, with those items?

As I overfocus on research for this move for there, I feel more disconnected here. Finding the place for both is more work and takes intention and effort. Is this how the overfocus in autism feels? I wonder if I'm getting a glimpse into my girl's world. And will this experience help me help her? (I hope so!)

Leaving Denial; Entering Memory Lane

We are moving. Not across town. Across the country.

I've known moving was a possibility since last fall; I've known it is real since early October. But it hasn't felt real. We've been waiting for official announcements and such, and while we were waiting, I stayed in a place of emotional denial that the move is actually happening.

Finally, the pieces are falling into place. The move is real. Here we go. Decluttering. Organizing.

Going through the stuff we have collected is exhausting, more emotionally, than physically. Trying to decide what to keep, what not, is a bigger job than I expected.

Clothes I wore when I was pregnant (I gave most of them away), baby items, hundreds of photos taken over the years, keepsakes from school that include artwork and handwriting samples, clothing I'm too fat to wear but hope to get into again (after the diet that I can't seem to start or stay on) - going through it all wears me out. Confronting the ghosts of the past when I expected to have completely recovered a child from autism by now is a chore I didn't expect or want.

Moving means leaving Denial and entering Memory Lane. What a trip.

Lifeway Stores: Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids, a TOS Crew Review

My kids love fact books, world records books, picture dictionaries and encyclopedias. We have quite a collection, mostly gathered from garage sales and book fairs. When the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids arrived, I knew it would be a hit at my house, because it is so similar to those kinds of books. And I was right. Especially for my homeschooler.

This book has everything my homeschooler needs to be an engaged learner with it. It's inviting and attractive. The pages are laid out in a fun way. There is a good mix on the pages of big boxes and small boxes with little bits of information presented in a way that does not overwhelm her. She can look at pictures or read text or both. I am amazed at the length of time she'll spend looking through it, browsing, reading. She gives it quality time. Every time she picks it up, she sees something she didn't see before, she learns a new fact, and she asks new, curious questions. She and I have had some interesting conversations from the topics in this dictionary. (She's fascinated with Samson.) I am finding that books like these are helpful because they allow me to see my girl's interests; I can look for unit studies and chase interests when I know what they are.

One interesting thing that I noticed is that my homeschooler, who often resists reading with me, will welcome me beside her when she looks through this book. I think it is because we are experience sharing together, pointing out this picture or that paragraph, and I am not asking her to read aloud for me. I'm not trying to "get" something from her. We simply share. She learns much this way.

Peek inside the book HERE. We really like it. I have trouble keeping up with it; it's another item my girl keeps sneaking off with to read alone. ;)

The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids is a sturdy hardback retail priced at $14.99.

See what my Crewmates have to say about this dictionary HERE.

Lifeway Christian Stores sent the the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids in exchange for an honest review. I am not paid for this review and am not obligated to provide a positive review.

Banana-Grams! For Kids Review

I see why Banana-Grams! For Kids, a book of word games for kids, won a Parents' Choice Award. This brilliant book of fun challenges, stretches, and grows thinking skills and uses memory and recall in a fun way.

I knew the game with little letter squares exists, but I didn't know the idea had been turned into a Banana-Grams! puzzle book. I thought the book would be like a book of crossword puzzles; all crossword puzzles with different questions and answers. Boy, I was wrong!

Each page is a new game. Each page uses thinking skills in a fresh way. Reading and following directions. Vocab. Spelling. Creative problem solving. Visual processing. Word associations. Definitions. Using clues combined with letters and blanks to solve a puzzle. There are no picture clues; she has to create the pictures and make associations in her mind. This is really excellent practice. I am so tickled to have been given this book to use and review. We needed it. I want more.

My NT kids would have no problems with the games in this book. It would make a great travel book for them.

My homeschooler with autism needs assistance with a lot of the pages in the book. She snuck off with it (something she likes to do that I don't like for her to do) and tried to do a couple of items, and actually did them correctly, and then, used her pencil to write random letters into blank squares. *sigh* I spent a good deal of time erasing her "work" and sat her down with me to re-do those pages.

The banana-grams vary in difficulty. I found myself scaffolding, supporting, different aspects of the task on different pages, according to difficulty, and, from a Relationship Development Intervention perspective, marvelled at how far my daughter and I have come, together.

I like to describe how I use a resource like this with a learner w/ special needs:

We are able to work on quite a few skills and functions together with just one fun book. For the most part, I do the writing. Expecting her to hold the book open, hold the pencil, pencil, form letters, and spell words were too many "extras" that created anxiety. When I played "secretary", and had the job of filling in the blanks, she had more room for the thinking and creative problem solving for each page. Sometimes I let her read the clue and look at the puzzle; sometimes I read the clue aloud to her, showed her the puzzle, and read aloud the letters and blanks in the puzzle. When she showed proficiency with the thinking part of a puzzle, I handed her the pencil to let her do her own writing. When she became anxious, I did the writing.

I got the chance to see things I haven't seen before. My girl can unscramble a row of mixed-up letters into words. She had a much bigger vocabulary than I thought, coming up with words I did not realize that she knows. She surprised me quite a few times. She knows more than either of us realize, I think.

Because the puzzle types are repeated, I anticipate seeing her anxiety decrease when she recognizes a familiar puzzle type as we continue to work through the book.

Being there with her to read directions, to work the first line of a puzzle for her, to answer for her when I thought she didn't know that particular vocabulary word is a good thing for both of us. She and I get to make some discoveries about what she knows. She knows more than SHE thinks she knows. She needs to slow down and understand directions before beginning, and Banana-Grams! For Kids gives us the background activity to practice that.

Banana-Grams! For Kids provides 18 different puzzle types totaling 130 all-new puzzles with four levels of difficulty. Workman Publishing's price for this 158 page paperback is $9.95.

Workman Publishing sent me a copy of Banana-Grams! For Kids for review purposes. I am not paid for this review and am not obligated to provide a positive review.

Tween Bling by Smart Mom Jewelry

Chewing on clothing. Chewing on hair. Chewing on pencils and erasers. What's a mom to do with a tween or teen who chews on her stuff?

I was recently introduced to one really neat solution:
My girl goes through periods of time where she seems to crave the sensory input of chewing. I had to wonder, are these cool Tween Blings appropriate for young ladies on the autism spectrum? I e-mailed the company to ask; they say "Yes!" and sent me samples to try. This one is my favorite:

Made for mothers of teething babies, these necklaces are designed from food-safe silicone to be sanitary and safe teething jewelry for moms to wear for babies to chew. Smart Mom Jewelry took the idea a step further with designs that appeal to tweens and teens for the chewers out there.

The necklaces come in a couple of shapes, and quite a few colors and patterns.

The solid patterns pictured below are lightly scented. Now, let me tell you, I am sensitive to scents and avoid most anything scented. So, I was skeptical that I'd like a scented necklace. I was suprised (pleasantly) when they arrived. They are so lightly scented that when I removed them from their packages, I thought, "that scent will never last". We've had them over a month, and the scent is still as gentle today as the day we opened them. When I wear one of them, I find myself thinking of Pixie Stix a lot. They are so lightly scented that sometimes I don't smell them at all, and then I get a whiff of fruity-something that smells exactly like the Pixie Stix that I remember from childhood. And then I realize it is coming from my necklace. (I want to try the vanilla bean scented pendant.) Almost without fail, someone comments on one of the necklaces when I wear one. I have taken them off for someone to hold, feel, squeeze. (Yes, I need to throw them in the dishwasher! Good thing they're dishwasher safe.)

When I was wearing the pink swirly doughnut shaped pendant, one woman gushed over it and asked what kind of stone it is. She was surprised to feel it and see for herself what it is made from. She was also surprised to see how lightweight it is; the pendants look much heavier than they are.

The cord is soft with almost a silky feel, and I can tell you from experience that I have had to undo some knots that Li'l Bit put in them, and I was able to untangle the knots easily. That's a plus.

The cords snap together simply and have the safety feature of a breakaway clasp:

We have really enjoyed wearing these necklaces. We haven't chewed on them much, but I see how they would be attractive to a chewer. (If Li'l Bit goes through another chewing period, I'm ready for her.) For me, the fidgeter, they give my hands something to do when I'm in a meeting or waiting. The heart shaped pendant is easier for me to bend and squeeze than the doughnut shaped pendants.

I wondered if the silicone would feel fuzzy or sticky after some use. So far, so good. They still feel as smooth and clean as the day we got them (a little over a month ago). I'm impressed.

For the sensory kid, I really like the fact that they are an attractive accessory as opposed to necklaces I've seen made from sterilized aquarium tubing that scream "special needs" in a school or clinical setting. They're easier to keep up with and cleaner/neater than therapy putty, too, for squeezing, pinching, bending.

This is another item thatLi'l Bit likes to take off with and play with alone; I have had to keep an eye on them and her, and keep them out of her possession until we are going somewhere that she needs her fidget pendant. (In addition to squeezing and bending them and an rare nibble, she likes to remove hers from her neck and twirl it around her finger. When I try to do that, I usually wind up accidentally flinging mine across the room. They bounce when that happens. Not sure how my kid is able to twirl hers without sending it into orbit, but she's quite good at it.)

I showed the necklaces to an OT friend of mine who works with kids on the autism spectrum. She loved them and asked me for the web site; I wore one to a group of moms of special needs kids and they oooed and ahhed over my necklace. And I suspect that my sister will get one of mine when she sees them; she has a newborn (named after yours truly).

One of my friends said that she'd like to order some necklaces for church nursery staff. Babies always try to chew on the workers' necklaces. I would have loved a pendant with my firstborn. I held her all the time. (Twins the second time around were a bit more challenging for me; I couldn't hold them or wear them all the time, especially with a toddler, too.)

Teething Bling and Tween Bling range in price from $10 to just over $20; pendant and bangle sets are available for $34 and under.

Safety risks: Bottom line - use at your own risk. Ya know, I am not concerned about my middle schooler (who is NT) wearing one without my direct supervision. My daughter w/ asd is a different story. She doesn't get one of them unless we're together. I don't recommend that you leave your child unattended with a necklace, even with the safety precautions of the safe materials and breakaway clasps. If you have a heavy chewer (like mine used to be), your child might be able to bit through them (mine bit through other types of chewies when she was little), so you'd want to be right with the child and directly supervise them with a pendant. Use your own judgement about what you know about your own child. You are responsible for doing your homework and assessing and assuming risks for your situation.

Smart Mom Jewelry sent me four necklaces for review purposes. I am not paid for this review and am not obligated to provide a positive review.

From Timberdoodle: Critical Thinking Co's Visual Perceptual Skill Building

Timberdoodle carries a variety of toys, games, and educational materials. Timberdoodle offered some options for reviewers and I chose a skill building book from Critical Thinking Press that focuses on an area where Li'l Bit needs practice: visual perception. I am familiar with Critical Thinking Press; I've purchased several products from them.

Note: The cover pictured here differs from the cover of the book I received.

After I chose the visual perception book, we went to see our "autism" consultant, who, without my input, screened Li'l Bit for some visual tracking issues. The consultant and I had the same instinct - we need to devote some time to this area.

I really like this book. I am certified in Basic Level 1 of Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment, and, while Visual Perceptual Skill Building is not FIE, there are similarities, and I can use my training along with this book. For $24.99, a parent can have a worktext that he/she can use at home with a child (without signing up for an expensive, out-of-pocket expense class, travel time etc). The activities are child-friendly; the pages are laid out well and are not over-crowded (in my opinion), which reduces performance and completion anxiety.

The recommended age range is 7-9; I would add that parents of older children who are developmental delayed may benefit from the activities in this book.

Visual Perceptual Skill Building Book 2

covers

Visual Motor Integration

Visual Discrimination

Visual Closure

Visual Figure Ground

VisualForm Constancy

Visual Memory

Visual Sequential Memory

Visual Spatial Relationships

The "problem" with this book at my house is that Li'l Bit needs help with it (a guided participation and/or FIE/mediated learning experience type help) yet she prefers to try the pages without my help, so she takes the book and sneaks off with it to try on her own. She got quite a few pages correct; but I found some errors in the work she did on her own. The fact that she enjoys trying to do the pages on her own is a positive thing. The negative is that I keep having to track it down! I was able to sit down with her and scaffold the process of what she missed and how to get to the correct answer. I want to give her the tools to get to the correct answer, the process, instead of giving her the answer. There's quite a bit of thinking involved, step-by-step strategies, within the different skills, despite the fact that this is a workbook about visual perception. Visual Perceptual Skill Building is a solid resource for the younger (or developmentally delayed) child who needs to join a guide/teacher. Having my daughter show me how she obtained her answer is one strategy we use. Walking my daughter through the process is another.

Here's another one she did without me.
We have an opportunity for another learning experience, because this one is incorrect. I'm not concerned that she got it wrong, because the error gives me a new opportunity.

I continue to be impressed with both Timberdoodle and Critical Thinking Company. This workbook is a big help for our needs and I recommend it to others who desire to work on strengthening areas of visual perception.

As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Pick and Draw game winner

I finally chose a Pick and Draw giveaway winner! Long weekends and working on details for move put me off track and I'm behind on this one.

Using Random.org, I entered 1-47 and had the widget pick a number for me.

The winner: #21, marnie said...
I love how simple this game is and that the creativity and variety it draws out of my kids! Doing the online sample over and over produced a different face each time.

Congratulations, Marnie!