An easy day that ended in water!

It's Saturday and we are having a very chilled day at home!  The only problem I have is the lack of space in my kitchen ......... and they come in the size of three very tall teenagers.  Not sure how I am going to go about 'doing stuff' with Nick with all the interruptions, but hey, Nick seems to fine so far!


Anyway, I thought today would be the the perfect opportunity to spend some quality time with Nick and I have a couple of objectives on my agenda!!

• Our RDI assignment is 'contingency'.  It is all about me taking a turn and then Nick taking a turn.  However, I don't want him to do the same thing as me and I need to check that he is watching me but keeping within his role, even though it may be a little different than mine! "We don't want him to do the same thing you are doing...but it is contingent on what you are doing" We started this a couple of weeks ago - click here if you missed my last post! Contingency is a difficult concept for Nick so we are just going to carry on with some basic interactions around the house. We are also going to keep those interactions short!

• I need to keep my mouth shut (could be difficult!!) and be mindful about the type of communication I use with Nick.  I want him to have the opportunity to think for himself. I also want him to anticipate what is going to happen and to repair actions if needed! Therefore, I have to try hard not to prompt him in any way and I must be patient and wait for him to realise what his role is/the pattern of the interaction. So......... here we go!

Clip one: I am going to put a cushion on the table and I want Nick to put it on the sofa. You will see how Nick watched what I was doing and he was aware that when I paused the action he needed to think about what he was to do next.  I didn't talk! I didn't gesture! All I did was wait!!

Clip two: We are both stacking the dishwasher, although I am putting in the large utensils and Nick is stacking the cups. Nick still hasn't 'clicked on' to putting the items in carefully so I gave him a little bit of guidance. Again, I didn't say anything to him and he had to think about what was going on.  Note: he was a little distracted by the boys!

Clip three:  This one didn't go so well, however, I am still adding it in with this post BECAUSE it shows what happened when Nick became out of sync with the pattern.  I also didn't 'speak' during this interaction although I did put my hands to my face to show "oh no" and I also held out my hands in a gesture that meant "huh, what about me"! (next time I won't make any gestures and will wait to see what Nick does!!) Towards the end of the clip Nick stopped what he was doing, went back to the CD cases, took one from the pile and then gave it to me. Nick was aware that I was involved and he tried to repair the action - this is great! :)

Unfortunately our chilled day got a bit hectic and I wasn't able to continue......  The rain came down, we discovered that our downpipe was blocked, the veranda filled up with water and the kitchen started leaking!

~*~