A Few Words From One of Our Therapists – 6/11/17

When I think I learn all the nuances pertaining to each of my client’s’ learning styles and/or habits, they will almost always bring something new to the [therapy] table. During my first session of the day, the client started a habit of biting his reward tokens when they were given to him. It got to the point where he would not listen to me when I told him to put his token on the token board. To handle it, I made him do really easy tasks to distract him from the biting, and then finally asked him to put the token on the board, in which he did and was even reinforced for that. It’s important to minimize attention on this aberrant behavior and, instead, reinforce the appropriate behavior. My second client made a habit of adding a “k” sound before some of his words -affecting his articulation. This is particularly an issue when he requests for items: “Ki want KiPad.” I found that if I model the “I” sound with my mouth (without saying the sound), he did not make the articulation error. Ideally, he will continue practicing the correct articulation and I will not have to use that prompt anymore. My third client, when he really had to use the potty, would abruptly get up from the therapy table, pull his pants down, and then walk to the bathroom. While it is fantastic that he knows when he needs to go use the potty, the habit of pulling his pants down too early is what therapists and parents want to get rid of. So, I read a “potty story” to him when it’s time to potty. The story narrates the proper steps in going to the bathroom. Hopefully, seeing the visuals, hearing the steps, and being rewarded for following those steps will help him understand the right way. As the children learn more about the world around them and interact with it in their own way, therapists are bound to come across a wide variety of behaviors. So we always have to be ready because they always keep us on our feet.