Moondog training day -14th June. Please post on this thread if...

[lougle]

Could you post if:

A) You have booked and received a confirmation by email.

B) You have sent the form and cheque but have not had confirmation of your booking.

Or

C) Intend to book but have not yet sent the form/cheque.

Moondog has received 12 bookings so far, but I have had 26 forms requested.

If Moondog receives less than 15 bookings the event can't go ahead, so she may have to open it up to people from other places, but ideally we'd like to keep it to MNSN only.

I'm trying to get an idea of who else wants to come

Thanks Moondog - feel free to send anything you like to me and I'll distribute from there.

HELP! I'm trying TAG on DS1, just introduced today. Chicken's are a great success and to my surprise he wants to click himself every time he heel strikes. He's very honest too. He decides where he's walking to, I then say, 'task is heel strike to second lampost',(for eg). Tag point is heel strike. He then walks and clicks himself every time he heel strikes. So far, so good.

However - how do I chart this? How can I devise something for school and him to use? I'm aiming for 6 sessions of his choice per day for two weeks. I can't find a simple, clear way to do this where he is fairly autonomous with it, this is important! I can see why charting is important in the long term but each distance is different here, he has no way of counting other than out loud which I'm trying to avoid as I want the waking to be as 'normal' as possible ...

I'm tying myself up in knots with charting and wonder if I really need to do it for this? Am using safmeds for times tables with both DSs and recording that nicely - but need some more blue charts but don't want to buy 500 from
America!

On the charting front I've sent an email around saying that if I buy a ream they're 20 a sheet inc. P+P so I could split them into batches of 10 for £2 plus P+P to you.

Did you get that email, or have I left you off?

Could you time the sessions, count the clicks, then work out the clicks per minute? Presumably as he gets more fluent his click rate will increase.

Hairy, you don't have to chart this behaviour.
We showed you how to bring charting and TAGteach together, which is often useful, but as in this case, it's not always necessary.
You might like to (as we discussed) let him know you will TAG him at random times in the day, but, what sounds really promising is that he is doing it to himself.

This is great because it sums up the whole 'TAG don't nag!' philosophy and he wants to do it.

But Lougle has given you a good suggestion if you really want to chart (and I will not be the person who dissuades use of charts as frankly, I would not live without 'em!)

Lougle did you get the charting tutorial I sent you earlier via Dropbox?

Lougle - I din't get that email - would love to do that though! Do you still have my email address, will pm if necessary.

We could chart like that yes, might have to swap the chicken clicker for a counting one though and just time the distance. We have set a two week block for this 'heel strike challenge' so will just note his choice of distance and approx click no. Mostly so he can see that he's doing his expected 6 times a day - and most importantly - that he's deciding when he wants to do it.

Moondog - I saw the email on my phone but couldn't open it. When I get home I'll try on my PC and email you.

Hairy -I'll check and pm you if I don't have it.

that's interesting, as I was going to TAG looking at the person when you speak, for ds, (for example on the way to school when he is speaking to me, and to my best friend and her kids, all of whom are fab with him) but unless you have a totally artificial conversation being able to chart that seemed difficult, as the opportunities for talking will vary each session, so being reminded that you can TAG and not chart (if necessary) is useful.
will pull my finger out and purchase chicken tomorrow

I'm clicking full-stop pauses!!!!! And getting ds to click MY full stop pauses.

Star, is that within speech to stop the monologue train? What a great idea.

Hairy I've been wondering how you got on. Sounds like he's doing brilliantly

Sign I'll go halves on a box of clickers!

Star that's genius!!!

Yes pls Lougle for charts....

Have lots of catching up to do (decorating living room/dining room/hallway) so excited for us all

Well we're using it during reading at the moment as he just runs one sentence into the other. But that sounds like a brilliant next step. Thanks.

My dd2 did that, Star. For years. Good idea

The TAG is not to be used as a reminder to do something, but rather as confirmation that something specific and desired has happened.

This is important as, without getting too technical, these are separate learning processes.
And most folk using TAGteach don't use with PT. They just do it on its own. We use both together (but not always) because they work great together.
Lougle has article I wrote on TAG for a Canadian behavioural publication which should be helpful.

If ds pauses when reading a paragraph, he gets a click. And so can carry on reading. If not, he starts the paragraph again and tries again.

Horrid Henry has very short sentences in each short paragraph. So we use those books mostly, for this reason and because he likes those books.

Nice.
Does he tolerate/like the TAG?

Does anyone have a link to chicken clickers? sign I don't know if practical to go halves, with extra postage.

I got mine through Plan Toys on Amazon but not always clear how many in each box. These are very cute bluebirds, which I am sorely tempted to splash out on to ring the changes.

He loves the tag. He loves getting the whole paragraph with full set of clicks and the efficiency that brings.

He likes reading over my shoulder and clicking me for pausing and also considering whether the pause was long enough to merit a click. It has opened up a bit of a discussion about why we need to pause.

I should video him tbh. He's so happy being clicked at......... (provided it doesn't drag on too long, obviously).

Chicken clickers ordered (keeping it real, would seem v unMNSN not to go with chickens).

Kids were with their Dad this weekend. He bought dd2 a pair of shoes. She is not yet able to tie laces. These shoes have laces. Guess what our first TAGteach task will be?

Yes, keep TAG sessions short!

Handy, here is the lovely Theresa (TAGteach dynamo and my inspiration) showing a child to tie his laces with TAG. They speak different languages. A graphic example of how language often makes a teaching situation more difficult.