Sunday, September 04, 2011

The unpredictable upside

Spin type school combination locks have never worked. It didn't help that #1 liked the idea of a key. Alas, despite his remarkable reliability with his phone, he kept losing keys.

This year he likes keys less. It's part of not wanting to be different, which is both unfortunate (he is different) and another powerful behavioral lever.

So I geared up to again try to teach him the spin lock for school use. I drafted a table with directions on the left, drew the spin direction, and did the combination in large font in a separate column. Working to separate the idea of the common actions from the unique combination.

Next came the question of incentive. This is an anxiety producing activity coming from his father. He does very little of this nature without a short term reward. Computer time alone was not enough. He wanted a MacBook Air. We compromised with an account on my Air -- a machine that he's lusted to touch and that has been mine alone.

He did it in one. Then he did it again.

I can predict what my neurotypical child can and can't do. I can't predict him.

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