Defused by DIR ® Floortime

I say it all the time. I LOVE DIR ® Floortime.

Rhetta found a sheet of stickers this morning and decided they would look best on one of the doorjambs. In her defense, there is one doorjamb where I let each kid put stickers but this was not the doorjamb she chose.

I first tried reasoning, because I feel it's important to try, but she was resistant. I next showed her the doorjamb she was allowed to use to no avail. I foolishly decided to show her what I wanted by taking the offending stickers off the one doorjamb and putting them back on the sticker sheet.

This set her off. Gah.

I next offered her a sheet of paper to put her stickers on and she promptly took the paper, stashed it (still in full-on fit mode) and proceeded to start all over on the doorjamb of her choice, but by now she was amped up; crying, and screaching, unable to self-calm. Clearly my efforts took a wrong turn immediately when I peristed in trying to reason with her. I swear I know better but it's instinctual, or ingrained, or something. I forget that it's not the best approach with her.

Anyway, that's when a bell went off in my head and I stopped and changed directions. I took out a marker and a fresh sheet of paper and started to write a story. Rhetta loves reading and writing. I had her attention immediately when I said, "Let's write a story about trains. We can use the stickers. Let me show you how."

She got very quiet once I wrote our title. She let me place the first sticker and from there I had her undivided attention. It was so much fun we did it twice. I asked questions, she contributed keywords and placed the stickers. Her fingers were too busy with stickers to do any writing but we'll try for more of that next time.

She was very proud of our creations so we posted them on our school wall.