Message from Julia’s teacher: The students are working on a project in TAG (Talented and Gifted) art - drawing the picture onto a grid. She said the students could practice home. I am send home paper you can use, as well as the picture in a folder. You would have to make the grid on the paper in order for Julia to do the activity.
Kati had Julia look at each square at a time and draw what was in each square- she use a wipe-off marker to mark the square as Julia worked on it. Julia was not happy with her final of the first draft she practiced but she had followed Kati's directions and tried it!
My response: A college friend of mine did this exercise in an drawing class at SLC and I watched in wonder. It is a very cool exercise. Julia has had a very much simplified version of this exercise in some of her coloring/work books. She is NEVER patient enough draw the picture according to the rules. I have an idea of what to do that may help, but I doubt that it will be finished by this Friday -- we have too much therapy to get it all done during the week. Would Kati mind of we worked on it over the weekend?
I think these art projects are really good for Julia. They are homework that she can learn a lot from.
My IDS team had a meeting yesterday and we spent part of it talking about Julia's anger and the physical manifestations. In the past few weeks, Julia has been hitting some, pulling hair, and generally saying NO to more suggestions. Consensus is that it feels like she is regressing; however, when I think about it, any forward leap that Julia has made is always presaged by some "bad" behavior. Fingers crossed that this will be the case. In the meantime, we are working on trying to get Julia to identify things that she can do when she is angry in the moment that she wants to be aggressive. One thing I suggested is strong sitting which has worked on and off for me. Julia doesn't hit me but she has not been listening and has refused to do more than usual which has been incredibly frustrating for me. I didn't put it together with the reports from school, but I think we are all seeing a return to dealing with anger and frustration in a physical manner. I will keep you in the loop as to what we figure out. Please share anything that you are trying in school.
The schedule for Upham Woods sounds great. Those kids will not have a minute free. I am so excited for Julia. I think she will have a good time. There are times she so wants to spend more of her time with other kids -- not that she always engages in discussion or play, but she still really wants friends.
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