Kitchen Classic!

I haven't been doing many planned engagements with Nick over the last two weeks. We have been cruising through the days, doing the same activities that Nick knows well and is comfortable with. I have been mindful about giving him opportunities to *think for himself*, however, I haven't set up any little challenges for him. I haven't taken into account the *'edge plus one' concept.

This is where the importance of having a plan in place really makes a difference. Nick needs planned engagements in order to progress. I need to put thought into framing an activity that ensures I am addressing 'edge plus one'. I also need to be very aware of how I am going to guide him. I don't want to *tell* him what to do as my wish is to provide him with the opportunity to *discover* and learn from his experiences.

When writing up a framework for my chosen activity, I ask myself the following...

What is my objective for the activity?
What are our roles throughout the activity?
What style of language am I going to use to ensure that Nick *thinks for himself*? 
What do I think Nick's edge of competence is?
What do I have in mind to ensure that he goes that extra step?

Note: When engaging with Nick, I continually ask myself, "is Nick operating on a conscious level?" Generally, when I see that he has *switched off*, I will pause and wait for him to reconnect.

This will all sound familiar if you have read, It's not about the carrot!

Anyhow, I thought I would share some video footage of an activity that we did a couple of days ago. Please remember that what we are doing and how I approach each situation is my own interpretation of what I am learning as we go through the RDI program. 

Funnily enough this is another kitchen activity, a place where we both feel very comfortable and relaxed. We are revisiting a familiar cooking activity and it is one that I know Nick feels competent with. I decided that I was going to bring in the challenge of using large tongs (Nick has used these once before, however, he needs more practice). Nick's challenge/plus one was to use the tongs to pick up and transfer each chicken piece over to the pan on the stove. 

I purposely cut the chicken up slowly, piece by piece in order to slow down the activity and really make it more meaningful. Due to the distance between the counter and stove, Nick was going to have to concentrate and apply enough pressure to the tongs to hold the chicken in place!

There are two things that I really like about the clip below (Kitchen one). Nick really perseveres with the task at hand and his resilience is shining through. I like that I spotlight what is happening so that Nick is hearing my thoughts as well as seeing what is unfolding before him. 

Just for interest sake ~ when we first started RDI, Nick was only able to tolerate 10 seconds of actually being with me!

I start off this second clip (Kitchen two) with my eyes closed. Nick was getting a bit stimmy and distracted. He kept wanted to touch my face and also put his face close to mine (note to self: the kid needs some deep pressure around the jaw line!). Throughout the activity I was trying to think of ways to slow him down a bit and encourage him to leave my face alone!! I don't know where the idea came from but I decided to close my eyes and see what happened. My plan was successful and Nick actually became more engaged.

Just for interest sake ~ our dogs were in the kitchen, however, they were fast asleep. What a luck!

The clip below (Kitchen three) shows that Nick has discovered how to manipulate the tongs to hold the piece of chicken. I purposely spotlight his success.

We are nearing the end of our planned engagement (Kitchen four). Although Nick is very engaged, I can feel that he has just about reached his limit with this particular activity. However, I just want to push him a tiny bit further in order to finish the cycle off placing the chicken in the pan. I took care to spotlight that Nick was able to pick up the chicken and put it in the pan. We end on success!

So, there you have it. A lovely planned engagement with Nick. He was connected, referenced me for information and wasn't stressed when something didn't work out as planned, He was thinking on a conscious level and at times actually seemed to enjoy spending time with his mum. I think that he did great! :)

As for me, I am happy with myself that I took it slow and ensured that I paused a lot, in order to give both me and Nick some thinking time. I provided scaffolding when necessary and also stepped back when I thought Nick needed a little push. I feel that I am getting better at speaking my thoughts and spotlighting important moments.

Nick also figured out how to use the tongs ~ win, win!

Feel free to comment or ask me any questions!

RDI ~ Observation and Imitation

We have been assigned a new RDI objective and it goes something like this;


Observation and Imitation


I need to provide opportunities for Nick to observe me demonstrating small things that I do on a day to day basis; and it needs to be something he is not used to doing. I then need to revisit that same activity a few hours later and observe to see if Nick is capable of memory retrieval and can imitate my previous actions.


As mentioned by our consultant; "The Challenge- Even though we will observe the goal of being able to carry out an action, we are looking, in this case at the goal beneath the goal of observation and imitation, leading to the understanding of the intent of observation to be able to carry out a goal"


"Nick observes carefully while you demonstrate a simple cause and effect action that results in a clear outcome. This observation will then carry over to understanding the relationship between observing and actually taking responsibility in doing it."


Sounds easy, right?


For the sake of this blog post, I am only going to focus on one framework....


*Making a cup of tea*


My aim was for Nick to observe me opening the cupboard and taking out one cup, the canister of teabags, the canister of sugar and a teaspoon. I also planned to make declarative comments to highlight each item. Due to other commitments throughout the afternoon, I decided to wait three hours before revisiting this activity. Then our roles would change, it would be my turn to observe and Nick would be responsible for taking out each item.

The following (very short) video clip shows both interactions 

Hmm, this wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. You can see from the video clip that Nick was aware that he had to take the items out of the cupboard, however, he was unable to remember the items and the sequence in which I took them out of the cupboard. 


Reflecting on this particular clip was a learning curve for me. I came to the conclusion that the time between activities was too long and I had given Nick too many items to remember. I also realised that he had no understanding of tea and sugar. He didn't know the words 'canister' or   'silver'. He was not aware of the difference between the spoons in the drawer. 


Not to be too harsh on myself, I do think that we, as a family, need to be more mindful of including Nick in more day to day activities! To our detriment, we have over indulged our special needs child; we have pandered to his whims because of his disability. His needs are high; however, he has proven to us that he is capable of so much more. We have to raise our expectations and guide him to succeed.


Moving right along......


The next time I introduced this activity to Nick, I made sure to use only two items and to spotlight the pattern on my cup. I was also mindful about slowing down and giving Nick time to observe, think and remember! 

Nick was relaxed and attentive. Our interaction was a positive experience.......... but, would he remember what to do in one hour's time?


I also wanted to see if Nick could retrieve from his memory the information about my cup, therefore, I snuck in a little curve ball of my own! I chose a brightly coloured striped cup and placed it next to my blue flower cup. Nick would see the striped cup first!

Viola, how good was that? :)


You can see at the beginning of the clip that Nick wasn't keen on participating ~ he asked me for the computer and then for the car. However, he quickly slotted into the pattern of retrieving the items AND check... he took out the blue flower cup!!!! I made sure to spotlight that success!


By making a few changes and simplifying our objective, we achieved success. That is a great feeling! The next time I do this activity with Nick, I can add a little challenge. Perhaps I will add an extra item for him to remember. Maybe I will introduce a different pattern of engagement. The possibilities are endless.

I think it is important to remember that I am not training Nick on how to achieve a skill. I am purposely providing him with opportunities and giving him the time to process information, think about that information and then decide on his next course of action. I am not telling him what to do, I am inviting him to respond. I am challenging him to become a dynamic thinker.

~*~