Spicy Dragons & Dinosaurs

Someone asked if David's impending surgery could be the cause for difficult behavior from Julia. Well, possibly and of course, but no matter the cause, the behavior is still difficult. Much like today -- I have been busy for two day with CLEs and Tuesday night at a PTO meeting. Julia gave David and the therapist that was here a really hard time refusing to listen or do anything. By the time I got home, the tension in the house was palbable, and Julia fawned over me telling me not to be disappointed and not to be angry. I had no idea what she was talking about until David told me about her behavior. I sat with her then and talked to her. I took her in my arms and we cuddled. She told me about her bad behavior -- not the reason -- but the hitting and yelling and not listening to Daddy or Morgan.

I had changed her routine. I was not there for two days to pick her up from school, and on Tuesday, I was gone during the evening as well.

Today, Julia had the day off and after early morning therapy we spent a pretty lazy day together. We spent two periods of time doing school work. First, we made a calendar from today until Christmas. Julia has been excited since Halloween talking about the order of the holidays, including her birthday on Jauary 16. She liked making her own calendar but I had to coach her writing every number. Her understanding of the concept of numbers is very delayed.

After we visited Marilyn, Julia and I worked again, this time on her reading. We did review and new sights words and then worked on writing using a popcicle to separate the words. She was very patient working. At just one point she got frustrated and then angry because she couldn't remember how to write a letter. I was able to talk her down and tease her a bit about asking for help. Our time went well.

One thing that Marilyn suggested today. We have been working on getting Julia to look at people when she talks to them, especially when she says hello and goodbye. We make sure that she make the eye contact with her therapist and with us, sometimes with her teachers. Marilyn suggested that we tell Julia that the person she is talking to will really like it if she looks at them when she is greeting them or saying good bye. In truth, I would have not thought of this, jus assuming that Julia knew this but how would she know? Sometimes teaching needs to go so far back.