April ~ Day Two

Hey ho, it's laundry day!

For this RDI planned engagement my objective was to continue encouraging a working partnership with Nick. The more I expose him to short co-regulatory activities, the more he is comfortable to join me.

Activity:              Transferring dirty laundry from the clothes basket into the wash basket.

Roles:                  I pass Nick an item of clothing
                            Nick places the item into the wash basket

Limits:                 No TV. Keep transferring until clothes basket is empty.

Communication:  Explain each role. Use eye gaze and body language. Declarative comments

What happened:  I described our roles. Nick listened and then deliberately moved away from me, sitting himself down on the ottoman at the bottom of my bed. I paused what I was about to do and had a quick rethink about my plan. Nick was too far away from me, therefore I decided to throw him an item of clothing. Woohoo, he took up the challenge. He caught the item and promptly (using a basketball throw) threw it into the wash basket. We carried on this way until the clothing basket was empty. I adjusted the speed of my throwing and also took care to change the direction of my throw. Nick managed really well with the little changes.

Conclusion:          It is important to be flexible. Plans change.... it's called life!

April ~ Day One

Household chores are great. Cough, cough, splutter!

Seriously, they do provide fabulous opportunities to engage with Nick. Sometimes I fly by the seat of my pants, however, if I really want to focus on the activity, especially when working on Nick's 'edge+1', I always write up a framework sheet. This keeps me focused and I know exactly what I want us to achieve.


The objective for today's framework was for us to practice getting back into the groove of working together. It's been a while since our last RDI engagement. Blush.

Activity:  Washing the dishes

Roles:      I wash an item and place it into the rinsing sink (I have a twin sink)
                Nick takes the item out of the water and places it into the dish rack

Limits:     No music or iPad. We only wash six items

Communication:  Discuss and model each role. Pausing. Declarative comments. Thinking aloud

Conclusion:  Nick understood his role, although on one occasion I did need to pause the action and remind him about our roles. I am glad that I kept the activity short. Nick was making the sign for "finished" after four items, therefore it was helpful to spotlight to him that we only had to do two more items. Will revisit this activity over the next few days, adding little variations and challenges to our original roles.