Behavioural Bits

I've mentioned in previous posts that Bee has started to hit the 'terrible twos', she's become defiant and willful and a little sneaky. We're aware that Bee struggles to not only process information she is given but remember it once told. We'd been looking into a suitable punishment and reward system to tackle the naughty toddler stage and the only thing really jumping out at us was the 'naughty step/spot' system. The idea being that when the time comes to punish a child for bad behaviour they have to sit on a designated step/spot for one minute per year of their life. In Bee's case, 3 years = 3 minutes. Our major concern about this is Bee's inability to retain information or a set task for longer than a minute or so. She needs lots of prompting to remember what she's supposed to be doing and can easily forget after a very short time when her attention wanders. If Bee can't remember why she's on the naughty spot then what is it acheiving?

Another challenge we're facing is Bee's autistic-like tendancies.She's started to have little meltdowns when her routine is changed or there's a sensory issue she doesn't like (texture/sound/etc). Of course we know Bee isn't wholly responsible for her actions during these moments, to a certain extent she can't help herself, but we need some strategies to help minimise and cope with them.

With this in mind I contacted our local SN nurse who recommended the behavioural clinic at our local CDC and, after a short time on the waiting list, we had our appointment today.

It turned out to be a very productive appointment and we were very pleased with some of the advice that came out of it. We're going to introduce a naughty spot (or little mini rug) for those toddler moments when Bee is just being a toddler, with a kitchen timer to give her a audio/visual prompt. We're going to start on 30 seconds of sitting still, a challenge for Bee, then slowly work up to the 3 minutes in 30 second increments. For the autistic-like meltdowns we're mainly to ignore them and walk away (unless she's in a dangerous position) until she calms enough to come after us. Then we're to brightly move her attention on to something else. We've also discussed using visual prompts such a cue cards to help her understand the activities we're doing that day to try and avoid meltdown situations.

It's going to be a challenge but I hope with some of the adjustments we discussed in the appointment ours and Bee's life will be a little easier and more peaceful.