Vibrating pagers may be a good tool for prompting children to stay on-task in the classroom.
This study was designed to see if vibrating pagers could be used as a hidden prompt for on-task behavior in a first grade classroom. The authors found that the pager was a good prompt to help children with autism in a classroom setting. The pager was able to reduce the need for overt teacher prompting as required during applied behavior analysis (ABA therapy). The pager was also good because it allowed the prompt to be given even if the teacher was across the room from the child. The authors note that the study design used a "whole-interval recording procedure" which may not have allowed for a good count of the amount of problem behavior.
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Spooktacular!
Nov 4, 2008 by dankohnIt has been a rather eventful time for us since I last wrote. The Halloween Spooktacular was a lot of fun and the kids had a good time playing the little games. I made what was surely a very tasty and attractive pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting for the Cake Walk, which we struggled valiantly (and in vain) to win back. When we finally did win, we were allowed to pick only a small treat because they were only giving away the big cakes on the quarter-hour. We were bummed and all we got for our efforts were three lousy cookies. It was nice to know that my cake was one of the “good” prizes, though.
Thomas’ teacher was at the fun fair conducting the Mummy Autopsy in the Haunted Courtyard. She was really funny and had a very convincing witchy cackle. Thomas was a little freaked out at first, but he (and Hayley) finally recognized the teacher and she watered her character down a bit so as not to scare my children in particular. Thomas really seemed to enjoy all of the festivities and after we finished up at the Spooktacular, we went to Grandma’s cottage.
Thomas had a difficult time at the cottage. There were a lot more people there than he was used to (good for us pier-workers, bad for the autistic boy) and all of the noise and bustle in the house was confusing and hard for him to handle. On Saturday, when we went outside to work, he did a lot better just being in the more open space and fresh air. The weather was actually pretty great. If there’s anything worse than working on that pier, it’s working on that pier when there’s drizzle stinging your face.
Thomas really liked using the leaf-blower, which we let him do because we’re idiots (again). Actually, it wasn’t that idiotic and it helped him. The vibration of the motor and loud noise really kept him focused and he did a good job blowing the leaves into the fire. Yeah, we had a fire going too. Jonathan was supervising and Thomas and Hayley both know to stay away from fires. Hayley actually learned about fire safety in preschool (where they CONTINUE to spell her name wrong…) and runs around the house saying, “Oops! Your arm is on fire! You better stop, drop and roll!”
After we finished with the pier, we went to the little country pumpkin farm. We don’t even go to the big, commercialized pumpkin “farm” near our house anymore. You should see how much they want for a pumpkin these days! So we go to the little country pumpkin farm up north and choose pumpkins. This place is so cool…you pay on the “honor system” meaning that there is no personnel manning the check-out counter. You just figure out what you owe and put the dough in a box. They have a tiny hay-maze, a big old tractor for the kids to sit on and this year, they had a little silo filled with corn and trucks. As you can imagine, getting Thomas out of the corn was a chore, but he loved playing in it.
We came home on Sunday and started getting ready for Halloween. As is characteristic of Thomas, he was not excited about Halloween. He still didn’t want to trick-or-treat, but as the week went on, I just didn’t let it go. We kept talking about the party at school on Friday so that by the time Friday came around, he was excited about going. Hayley and I walked Thomas to school, then I went to Hayley’s school to watch her costume parade and take pictures and then I booked back to Thomas’ school to help with his party. I put on my Cleopatra costume in the hallway before entering Thomas’ room. His teacher was a very fetching Snow White and one of the other moms was a pumpkin so I wasn’t the only goofy grown-up there. Thomas did really well; he participated in the craft (a little magnetic Candy Corn with his name on it), played Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin and played Spooky Bingo. We then went on a classroom parade, going through the other, big-kid classrooms. Then it was back to the room for cupcakes and cookies, not to mention all of the candy that other kids brought to share with their chums. Then we walked to go get Hayley (I, still wearing my Cleopatra costume. And pulling the wagon…) and then we walked home. Hayley’s backpack was really heavy and I couldn’t imagine what was in there until we got home and opened it. It was full of around five pounds of snacks and candies that classmates had brought. I felt like a deadbeat because I didn’t bring anything, but it looked like the kids had more than enough. With the amount of candy they brought home, we really didn’t NEED to trick-or-treat at all. But we did. My niece Julia looked adorable in her girl’s pirate costume. The kids did a good job, except that Thomas had the same problem as last year with staying by us on the sidewalk. He was running ahead and then running back to us but sometimes he would run a little too far ahead. I know it was definitely not his fault, what with all the sugar in his little body. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents out there who gave out pretzels and whole-wheat crackers! God bless!
When we got home from trick-or-treating on Halloween night, the kids were absolutely wired. We tried to get them to eat some form of protein – anything at all that could be considered good – and were only partially successful. Hayley chose scrambled eggs which I whipped up with the enthusiasm of a TV chef. Thomas I believe finally settled on some kind of bread product and wouldn’t be induced to eat any kind of meat. Oh well. Halloween only comes once a year, followed shortly by the holidays. But seriously, only once a year. Like Easter. And vacation. And Valentine’s Day…
We had a party for Jonathan’s birthday on Saturday. His family came over and we had a very pleasant dinner for him. Thomas was okay with the whole thing, sort of. He didn’t want anybody to have any cake, EVER. I just wish I knew what that meant. He says stuff like that, but it’s one of those things where you know he doesn’t mean what he’s saying; he means something else. I just can’t figure out what he means. I’m still working on it.
Thomas’ report card came home yesterday and it was very good. He has either mastered or is progressing as expected in most skills. He still needs more work on remember his address, phone number and birthday. He also needs to work on holding writing utensils properly, but other than that, he’s really doing well. I meant to ask his teacher if he’s being evaluated just as his classmates are or if she uses a more lenient scale for Thomas. I would like to assume that he is graded on a par with his peers, but whenever I’m in class, I can tell that she’s being a little more patient with him than she is with some of the other kids. That could just be because I’m in class or it could be because she knows that certain things are harder for Thomas. I volunteered in class today and meant to ask, but forgot. She kept me busy filing, cutting, laminating and working with certain kids on recognizing letters. I had not a moment to think!
Coming up, we have…very little. My birthday is in a few weeks and I need to think about what we’re going to do for that. I hate making these decisions. It feels like I’m trying to throw myself a party. We used to go out for birthdays, but a couple of years ago Jonathan and I decided that it’s easier with the kids and everything if we just stay in and order pizza. Well, staying in and ordering pizza evolved into staying in and hosting a dinner party and Jonathan’s birthday party was every bit as stressful and required almost as much preparation as one of the kid’s birthdays. So I’m thinking of just saying that we’ll all go to Chili’s for my birthday because I don’t want to have to do as much work for my birthday as Jonathan and I had to do for his.
One thing I will do gladly, however, is accept gifts.
So happy I could cry
Jul 9, 2007 by AnonymousIt’s been hot here! Swimming has been our main activity, which is usually fine with Thomas and Hayley. Thomas is doing a great job going underwater! Today I was watching him (he can actually go under for about five seconds) and saw that he was opening his eyes, so I put on a mask and went under with him. He was so cute, waving to me and grabbing my fingers. He kept bringing me over by the ladder to go underwater with him. He also likes operating one of the Super Soaker water-guns at my uncle’s pool, narrating as the water goes “up and down.” Both Thomas and Hayley have very nice tans in spots where their life jackets aren’t and we’ve escaped with no sunburns so far. Both Thomas and Hayley prefer hand-applied lotion over the non-aerosol spray sun block. Actually, I do too, but there’s no one here who can be counted on to sufficiently lather my back during the day when we go swimming, so I have to use the spray for convenience. I use a really thick lotion which allows for some good calming sensory therapy as I rub the lotion into Thomas’ shoulders, arms and legs.
Thomas has been helping us teach Hayley to use the potty lately. I was getting her dressed yesterday when I realized that putting a diaper on her seemed ridiculous. We were very lax in our toilet-training of Thomas, giving his body what we considered enough time to mature, and hoping his brain would be able to handle it. Of course, he picked it up right away. Anyway, I was getting Hayley dressed and she just seemed too old for diapers all of a sudden. I showed her a pull-up next to a pair of Sleeping Beauty underpants and asked which one she would prefer to wear. She chose the princess undies of course, and so we began again. She’s been doing pretty well with only two real accidents so far. The problem is that she will sit on the toilet for ages and not do anything. After a while, she might let a few drops go. However, she has filled the little training potty a couple times and we hope that now we’re on our way.
As I said, Thomas has been helping by congratulating Hayley when she does what she’s supposed to, and he’s obliged us by demonstrating this most basic of bodily functions for his sister. Last night, however, I had to explain to Hayley why she can’t stand up in front of the potty to urinate. We had the “girls don’t have penises” talk, and again, Thomas was happy to oblige with visual aids. I think Hayley understands that aspect now, since she has never seen me use the toilet without sitting down.
I broke down and took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese’s last Monday. For some reason, Thomas had it in his head that we were going to go that day, and Hayley was only too happy to agree with him that yes, we should definitely go. I took them once by myself before; I think it was last winter sometime. That time, everything went okay (it was really crowded, as I recall) until it was time to go. I remember having to run Hayley out to the car and then run back in to carry Thomas out while he was hitting my face really hard. After that, I swore that I’d never take them by myself again. Of course, we forget the sharpness of those wounds in the fullness of time (like forgetting how much labor really hurts) so I decided to try again.
For an entire hour before we left and in the car on the way to the restaurant, I had the kids play “Finish This Sentence” with me:
Me: When Mommy says it’s time to go, you say…
Kids: OKAY, MOMMY!
Me: And then you hold my hand and we walk to the…
Kids: CAR!
I was assured that we had this routine down as we walked into the blessedly un-crowded restaurant. The kids had fun and were very good. After a couple hours, I wasn’t even thinking when I said, “Okay, are you guys about ready to go?” Before I even finished my sentence, Thomas said, “Okay, Mommy!” They both grabbed my hands and we walked out to the car. I was so happy I could have cried.
We finally had that appointment with the pediatric cardiologist last Thursday. Thomas has what is called a “stills” murmur; just a vibration in one of the sections of his heart. There are no holes and nothing to be concerned about and the cardiologist said that Thomas should grow out of it within three years. She said that murmurs are rated on a scale of 1-6 in terms of loudness, and Thomas’ is a two. Thomas was actually very good for the appointment. They did an EKG for which they had to apply stickers all over his body, and he complied and even sat still while the EKG was being taken. When the doctor asked Thomas not to talk while she listened to his heart, he complied! Even Hayley didn’t talk! When we walked into the waiting room, they had several cars and trucks there and I was immediately on high alert, knowing (or so I thought) that getting Thomas out of there without one of those trucks would be a fight to the death. He did take a couple of trucks in and out of the exam rooms with him (there was a separate room for the EKG and the examination, and we had to go back to the waiting room in between), but when it was time to go, Thomas had no problem with me putting the cars back in the toy box! Again, so happy I could’ve cried.
I called the neurologist last Tuesday to update her on Thomas’ progress with the Clonidine, and she advised us to give him an entire 0.1 mg pill at night. Thomas is still not sleeping through the night in his bed, however. His behavior, as referenced above, has been really good in public (not so much improvement at home), but I’ll take what I can get. We’ll go to the neurologist again on the 18th, so we’ll see if she has any other ideas, pharmaceutical or not.
We had a lot of fun on the Fourth of July at Uncle Tom’s house. Parties there (especially in the summer) are really great for us because Thomas is very comfortable there and is usually content to swim until nightfall. We stayed for fireworks, which is when Thomas started to have trouble. We brought his headphones, which he didn’t want to wear. He kept going in and out of the house, but Jonathan followed him and actually got him to sit on his knee and watch fireworks for a minute (Uncle Tom, besides having a fabulous pool, has a clear view of the park district’s fireworks display from his deck). Jonathan said that Thomas was smiling and seemed to enjoy the fireworks while he watched them. We had a really good time that day.
Coming up we have my grandmother’s 80th birthday party on Saturday (it’s a surprise, so if you know her, don’t tell her!) which is also at Uncle Tom’s. Hopefully, it will be another successful social activity! Luckily, we’ve been blessed with many of those lately.
Bubbles, bubbles everywhere
Mar 18, 2007 by dankohnSo tired. Must rest.
The reason I’m tired is completely my fault. Well, my fault and the author Jennifer Weiner’s fault. My sister recommended the book Goodnight, Nobody, an excellent murder-mystery with a suburban Connecticut stay-at-home mom as the protagonist. Usually, I read to help me get sleepy at night but this book was not that kind of book. Recently, I had been reading Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca for the umpteenth time. That one is good for inducing sleep, partly because the print is so small in my worn paperback copy, and also because I know how it ends. (Does it end so abruptly? I think I may be missing a couple chapters at the end.)
So this book was a page-turner and I stayed up late reading last night. I finally gave up on waiting for my eyes to get tired and decided to just turn off the light. I should have finished the thing. I stayed awake for an hour trying to figure out who the murderer was and possible motives. My brain wouldn’t turn off. I was tossing and turning and then Thomas came in, as usual. He crawled right under the covers and went to sleep. A few minutes later, I was laying peacefully when I heard my daughter’s sweet little voice pipe up from right next to my head. “Oh, hi Mommy! Oh, hi Thomas! Oh, hi Daddy! Oh, hi Sophie!” She scared the heck out of me. Hayley had evidently figured out the whole toddler-bed thing and that she can indeed climb out, at will, no matter the hour.
“Hayley! What are you doing in here?”
“Mommy under da sheets.”
“You’ve got to go back to bed!”
“Daddy under da sheets.”
“Yes, but Hayley has to sleep in Hayley’s bed.”
“No, Hay-yay seep wi Mommy.”
“No way! Come on, let’s go back to bed.”
“Thomas under da sheets.”
She had me there. Now what? Thomas is allowed to sleep in our bed but Hayley has to go back to her room all by herself? Three-quarters of the family sleeps in my and Jonathan’s bed (not including the animals that sleep in our bed), but Hayley is banished to her room. Ugh.
I took Hayley back into her room anyway and vowed to try and settle things today. She got back into her bed and pulled the covers up. I kissed her and left the room, leaving the door slightly ajar as usual. About forty-five minutes later, I was still tossing and turning. I started to nod off when I noticed that Hayley was now completely in the bed, sitting up next to Jonathan and babbling away. Okay, this time I had to get serious and shut the door to her room. I picked her up and took her back to bed, explaining that she has to stay in her bed all night long and not get up until it’s light outside. I also said I’d be shutting the door. Hayley can’t work our doorknobs yet, so I knew she wouldn’t be able to go strolling around the house at 3 a.m., which was coming up fast.
I heard her trying the knob a few times after that, but she didn’t get out. I eventually fell asleep and for all of the getting up and restless sleeping in the middle of the night, the kids didn’t sleep late this morning, which was a bummer.
The other bummer was that Jonathan was asked to work yesterday and today. I can’t remember him ever working on a Sunday before. He had the option to say no, but in the end we couldn’t pass up the double-time pay. This morning, I took the kids to the store to buy ingredients for Jonathan’s favorite meal (ginger beef stir-fry) and to replenish our bubble supply. Thomas found an old bottle of bubble solution in a cabinet yesterday, but it was really old and didn’t make many bubbles, so I told the kids that we’d go get more bubbles today. I made a list and off we went. I’m a woman on a mission when I’m at the store with both of the kids. First stop, the bakery counter to pick up free cookies for the kids. Then, produce, meat, bam-bam-bam, and finally the bubble aisle where I purchased the Bubble Extravaganza 4000 or something like that. It’s a little machine that the manufacturers claimed would blow “10,000 bubbles in minutes.” The package literature was correct. I didn’t actually count, but this machine created something of a wind-tunnel in Thomas’ room and blew many thousands of bubbles around in no time. It also went through the bottles of solution it came with in no time. Luckily, I had the foresight to purchase six more bottles, which are now half-gone. One bad thing about it is that there’s nothing to keep the solution from sloshing out if the machine is moved, which it was by my children as they fought for possession of the toy. I spent a hefty portion of my day wiping up bubble solution from the floors. The kids really enjoyed the whole thing, though.
Anyway, Thomas is still screaming (it’s worsened since I last wrote) a lot, but now he’s covering his ears when he does it. How comical. This says to me that he doesn’t enjoy the noise coming out of his mouth as much as the vibration in his head. He had just “okay” or “difficult” days at school all this past week.
I wrote last time that Thomas got upset when Jonathan yelled at him last week, and he’s been continuing that trend. I yelled at him today when he dumped bubble solution all over the floor (again) after I had told him not to move the little machine. His lip stuck out and got pouty in that really cute and sad way so I held him a little and we talked about the bubble machine. At one point, he actually got paper towels himself and attempted to clean up the mess. Great self-helping! And all of the soapy solution on his carpet actually made it smell fresher and look cleaner. So all’s well that ends well. I’m sure we’ll have more adventures with bubbles tomorrow.
We’ve got a play-date coming up this week at my mother-in-law’s house with some relatives on Jonathan’s dad’s side. There are three other kids coming, but two of them are only three months old and the other is just over a year. I think it’s more of a mommy play-date. I’m just worried that Thomas and Hayley will want to go to the basement to play and I’ll have to follow them down there to keep an eye on them while everyone else sits upstairs cooing over their infants and eating finger-sandwiches. Ho-hum.
I don’t have a very good attitude about it, do I? We’ll see what happens. Anyway, it’s a reason to leave the house for a few hours. I’m more worried about next week, Spring Break. What are we going to do? How am I going to fill the hours? I guess I’d better head back to the store and get a lot more bubble solution. They’ll have to load it into my truck with a fork-lift
Mr. Sandman, where are you?
Jan 16, 2007 by AnonymousBedtime has gone from bad to a little bit worse. For the last two or three nights, Thomas has gone unwillingly to his bedroom at bedtime and stays there for a bit just to make us believe that he's going to sleep. After about a half-hour, he starts running out of his room and running back in. Then he says things or asks us questions to which I have a hard time not responding. I hate ignoring him when he's asking us questions or saying things because I think it's rude for one thing. For another thing, it's such a big deal that he asks us questions at all that I don't want to discourage it by ignoring him.
And the ignoring doesn't work. Thomas' goal is to wait up long enough for me and Jonathan to go to bed and then follow us. By then, Jonathan and I are bushed and don't want to start a fight that could wake Hayley. We only let him come to bed with us on Tuesday night and it was almost midnight by then. Last night there were a lot of tears and crying, so I finally sat next to his bed and waited for him to fall asleep. I didn't talk to him or interact with him, I just sat there. He fell asleep fairly quickly because it was so late already and he was very tired.
Jonathan and I have decided that since we're dealing with "going to bed" problems, we might as well deal with the night waking. I'm not sure if Thomas is actually awake when he comes to our bed in the middle of the night, but he has woken up and come into our bed every single day for almost a year and a half. Some nights he comes in fairly early, by eleven o'clock or so, and other nights he doesn't come in until 3 a.m. Recently, he's been coming in by eleven every night, while Jonathan and I are still awake. We have decided that if Thomas comes in while we're still awake now, we're going to take him back to his bed. There might be screaming and crying, but hopefully Haley will sleep through it. If Thomas comes in after we're asleep, there's nothing we can really do about it because I usually don't even wake up.
Besides all of the illnesses of childhood, the autism, the education and socializing, there's so much you have to teach your children just about functioning in society. Bedtime behavior, getting dressed, bathing, potty-training, schedules, eating, etc. When Thomas was about nine months old, Jonathan and I were at our wit's ends about getting him to take naps and fall asleep on his own. For a long time, I took naps on the couch with him and then I started rocking him to sleep and transferring him to his crib where he would wake up after fifteen minutes or so, crying. He wasn't napping well, and was over-tired as a result. I took him to the doctor in desperation and she told me to let him cry for a half-hour or so and he'd go to sleep. Thomas could cry for an hour and a half before giving up and going to sleep. I remember how hard it was to let him cry. He would become hysterical at some times. After all was quiet for a while, I'd check on him and find him crumpled in a corner of his crib like a tired puppy. It broke my heart (I was very emotional a the time...I was pregnant with Hayley and didn't know yet) but after a couple of weeks of being tough, he became very good at going to sleep. We could put him to sleep fully awake and he'd be asleep within minutes.
Fast-forward to now, and we've just got to be tough even if we lose a lot of sleep over it. Tonight, he's pretty quiet in his room (with the occasional shout or falling toy) and hopefully he'll stay there. One day soon, I hope Thomas will spend the entire night in his bed. I don't know what it's going to take to get there, but we'll just have to keep trying.
Speaking of shouting, that's another thing Thomas has been doing a lot of. Lots of really ear-splitting screaming, the kind that makes you feel like you're going to lose your mind if it continues for even one more nano-second. He's not upset when he does it, he's just yelling for fun, I guess. He must like the vibration in his head or something. I hope it's just another phase.
On the upside, the potty training is all but finished for Thomas. He's still not using words to tell us that he has to go, but he does run around and grunt while holding his crotch. The next step is to get him to go a little while before it becomes an emergency so that he has the presence of mind to pull his pants down, but the seat up and go. However, he hasn't had an accident for a long time now, and diapers are just a distance memory for him.
After our cruise, I think we're going to start on getting Hayley potty-trained. We'd like to send her to preschool in the fall, so our goal (which will amost certainly be revised) is for Hayley to be trained by the time we take our family vacation in June.