I tend to view progress incrementally. Maybe that is part of being a teacher. I break progress down into small parts sometimes separating skills into sub-skills. I was thinking of this today in regard to Maya's fairly new skill of answering questions using yes and no. The first accomplishment that Maya made in this area was a few months ago, when she would answer yes and no accurately when given the choice at the end of a question. For instance we would ask her, "Do you want to go outside? Yes or no?" and she would answer. During the past few weeks she has started to answer questions by saying yes or no without having to be offered the choice. If we ask, "Do you want to go outside?" she may just say "Yes"' on her own. This is helping her to communicate all kinds of things to us. It is helping us to help her put her feelings into words. She usually ends up coming to lay down by me sometime between 3:00 and when we get up at 6:30. A few days ago, she didn't so she was still asleep in her room when I woke her up at 6:30. She was very sad and whiny while getting ready for school. After about 10 minutes of struggling, I asked her, "Are you sad because when you woke up you were in your bed and not mommy's bed?" and she answered sadly, "yes". We would never have gotten an answer to that question even a month or two ago. We may have guessed at what was bothering her, but we would not have known. This may seem like a small step, but naming her emotions and the reasons behind them is an abstract and difficult skill, which we can now help her to do. This is just one way that her spontaneous use of yes and no is helping us to communicate with her better. It seems that along with this she is answering other types of questions more frequently also. We are excited to hear all that she has to say!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Spontaneous Yes and No
I tend to view progress incrementally. Maybe that is part of being a teacher. I break progress down into small parts sometimes separating skills into sub-skills. I was thinking of this today in regard to Maya's fairly new skill of answering questions using yes and no. The first accomplishment that Maya made in this area was a few months ago, when she would answer yes and no accurately when given the choice at the end of a question. For instance we would ask her, "Do you want to go outside? Yes or no?" and she would answer. During the past few weeks she has started to answer questions by saying yes or no without having to be offered the choice. If we ask, "Do you want to go outside?" she may just say "Yes"' on her own. This is helping her to communicate all kinds of things to us. It is helping us to help her put her feelings into words. She usually ends up coming to lay down by me sometime between 3:00 and when we get up at 6:30. A few days ago, she didn't so she was still asleep in her room when I woke her up at 6:30. She was very sad and whiny while getting ready for school. After about 10 minutes of struggling, I asked her, "Are you sad because when you woke up you were in your bed and not mommy's bed?" and she answered sadly, "yes". We would never have gotten an answer to that question even a month or two ago. We may have guessed at what was bothering her, but we would not have known. This may seem like a small step, but naming her emotions and the reasons behind them is an abstract and difficult skill, which we can now help her to do. This is just one way that her spontaneous use of yes and no is helping us to communicate with her better. It seems that along with this she is answering other types of questions more frequently also. We are excited to hear all that she has to say!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That is so true. I'm struggling with teaching Luke how to identify emotions. It was really easy with Jackson, but I now know that each child is different and learns at their own pace. Luke just "feels" there is no defining it for him right now. I'm so glad that Maya has figured it out!
ReplyDeleteThat is a big step. It must be very reassuring for her to have her feelings validated. You are such a good Mom!
ReplyDeletedoes it help her to perk up a bit after she has identified her emotion?
ReplyDeleteWhen she knows we understand what she wants, needs, feels, etc. it almost always calms her and makes her feel better. If we don't give her what she wants or thinks she needs, that is a whole other can o' worms that we are working on. That is getting better too, but like all children (and adults for that matter), it depends on mood (fatigue, hunger, health, etc.)
ReplyDelete