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

I just love his sense of victory at the end.
That is how every kid should feel about learning, whatever the task and our job is to help them feel it.

I so agree with you, Moondog. I love that video. Am going to look on the TAG teach website. dd2 intrigued about how I am going to reach her to do this with a wooden chicken. Intrigued is a good start! Come on chickens!!!!!!!

I'm very excited. I've been making SAFMEDS cards using a brilliant graphics programme called Inkscape. It's totally free (open source) and is very similar to the very expensive Adobe Illustrator.

My chicken is winging its way to me (see what I did there? Born comedian ) as I speak, too.

Great video.

TBH there are lots of videos appearing on the net that give me lots of ideas. The trouble is (as always) evaluating whether or not they are in fact good practice. Some of the ABA ones are shocking, (though without context they could represent improved mental wellbeing for the child).

I wonder if there ought to be more courses available to professionals and parents on evaluating interventions. It seems to me that this would push ABA way out in front without ever having to advocate for it.

And it's funny because I see people who use PECS, who use PRT and even the ESDM make a point of saying 'This is different from ABA'.

I guess they mean the ABA general schema rather than the true definition!?

Well I finished my money SAFMEDS cards and tried them with DD2. First attempt, I was a bit lazy and just did a minute timer on her without going through the preparation bit (I know, stupid, but hey). She got 6 right and 3 wrong learning opportunities in 1 minute. The next time I did it, I just showed her a few, then did it. She got 6 right and 7 wrong learning opportunities. The final time, I did it all properly and she got 14 right and only 4 learning opportunities!!

Wow, it really works especially if you do it right.

That's great Lougle. I've been using the super duper data tracker with dd to practice new words on flash cards and she has gone from 23% to 60% in a week. I love looking at the graph and seeing the progress! I'm going to have a look at Inkscape too thanks as I need to make more cards.

Great to hear of everyone's successes! :)

Ooh....You can get Fun Decks in apps for only £1.50 ish instead of the £13/135 in a box!

Yes! Forgot to mention that.
You will be like Lovely Colleague soon Lougle, with a paperless kingdom.

I have been planning my all out Direct Instruction full frontal attack for September. Raring to go I tell ya!

'Next season I will mostly be doing hand signals'

I'm gonna rule the world!

DD2 was so excited to have her very own SCC. She kissed it

That's my girl!
Remember to make liberal use of area around the data trajectory for stickers, lipstick kisses, coffee and butter stains.... It's a free for all.
As the great Michael Fabrizio once told me, wagging his finger
'There is no such thing as a bad chart!'

Gonna teach ds how to chart. He's at the stage where he would 'gett it' and plotting alone would probably be a huge reinforcement (damn it that was supposed to be MINE).

DD2 was so sweet. She had been to a school fete (at the school which DD1 will move on to) on the Saturday we all met and had been given a wooden box with colouring pencils inside and a ruler for a lid.

I was scrabbling through the felt tip box for a green and red felt tip, when DD2 said "I have something nicer, Mum". She then picked up her box as if it were the Crown Jewels, gingerly slid back the lid and said "I have a red one and a green one." What an honour! We marveled together at what a beautiful dot the green pencil made on her chart, then how magnificent her red pencil was at making a cross.

I pointed out how wide the gulf was between her dot and her cross and that we expect her door to go higher and the cross to go lower. I thought she was going to burst with pride!

I knew I'd unearth her inner geek -she had to have it with me as her mother

So brilliant Lougle I just knew this training day would give you your home ed springboard. This is exactly what your lovely dd2 needs and deserves

www.printablepaper.net/

I just found this! Yay

Oh.

TAGteach fail.

We did the shoelaces thing. And we got there eventually, but not without pain!!!!! (My bad).

Problem No.1: dd2's dashed expectations. I told her that I was going to help her with the aid of a chicken. In dd2's mind a chicken was going to give her precise instructions. So a chicken that merely 'clicked' as a 'bad surprise' (as we say round these parts).

Problem No.2 was that, having faced a 'bad surprise', the click put her under pressure and dd2 got in a tizzy and banned me from clicking!

She got quickly frustrated and stormed off. Then I said she was too stressed to learn. Then, not one for being beaten, she and I went through it with clicks. Once she got the hang of it, she 'allowed' me to click through each TAG point.

We have done a sort of backwards TAG teach. Badly. I fear the chicken will forever be associated with pressure and stress

I am not going to be put off but this was more of a learning experience for me than for dd2!!!!

can't actually believe that happened........

I always get kids to click me first, particularly those I know might get worried and stress.
So I will tell them to TAG me catching a ball two handed perhaps and deliberately make a hash of it frequently. They love to not click me and important for them to see me shrug and say 'Never mind! Try again!'

Remember:
Model (I'll do it)
Lead (We'll do it- this step not always relevant to every situation)
Test (You do it)

So useful

Thanks Moondog you are on the money. I did remember to lead and get her to click me. But I remembered too late ie after clicking her attempt. We are talking seconds. Which is ample time for her anxiety to shoot up.

Chalking that one up to experience. Plus she has learned it now. Gotta hand it to her she controlled her anxiety enough to revisit and learn it.

Ah, we are all learning here.
The adults even more than the kids to be honest.
Good for her for keeping it together.

You know what, Moondog the hardest thing was to stop the adult verbal dribble that was coming out of my mouth as I clicked her. dd2 specifically told me to just click and stop talking - too right!!!!!! Didn't even realise it was happening

Who is the operant here????? Big learning curve...

'dd2 specifically told me to just click and stop talking '

rofl...... quite right.

Keeping silent is HARD and often I yak on and realise too late that the poor child has completely tuned out.

I think the most important thing to remember is that, for many (most?) kids who are having difficulty learning something, language hinders, unless they themselves have a very firm grasp of all aspects of language. It doesn't actually help at all, which is the polar opposite of all we have been taught.

It's one of the things that drives me mad about (some) ABA therapists with their inane 'nice hands, gimme five! good job well done nice hands sitting nicely' spiel.

SHUT UP!!!!

It's why animal trainers have a good name in the field of ASD. They are used to teaching without language.
If you can teach with language stripped bare, then reintroduce gradually unti lback to a more normal 'dose'.