At School
Is it sensory, or is it behavior?
I had the opportunity to speak to a group at one of the schools where I work on the topic of discerning whether kids’ “behavior” could be motivated by sensory processing, or whether it’s just […]
behavior
At Home
You’re Not Listening (part 2)
I posted last week about the overuse of the word “listen” to mean “obey” in adult/child relationships — i.e., “you’re not listening to me” when what the adult really means is “you’re not complying with […]
Elementary
You’re Not Listening (part 1)
Once you start paying attention to how often adults say “listen” to euphemistically mean “obey”, it’s hard to get it out of your head. I think many of the adults I know are trying very […]
Elementary
Power & Safety
Exerting power over a child just for the sake of exerting it is a threat to the child’s feelings of safety, and they know it. They’ve been living in this world for however many years, […]
At Home
Helping vs Revenge
This quote sums up everything I’ve ever tried to say about “behavior” and does it so perfectly succinctly in four sentences. What’s the best-case scenario? That instead of wanting to get revenge on children for […]
At Home
“Not Letting” Them Whine
This post has an audio and video recorded version for those who prefer to learn by hearing rather than by reading. Scroll to the bottom for the video of me reading it. Someone recently asked […]
Elementary
It’s “Not Okay”
If my partner and I were chatting and he said “Ughhh, I’m so stressed out by writing this dissertation, I could just throw my computer out the window!” I wouldn’t say, “Well, you aren’t allowed […]
Humor
“Air-Conditioner Escaping Disorder”
Let me tell you a fable. Once upon a time, an expert doctor was studying a child who ran away from rooms that had air-conditioners in them. Air-conditioners had only recently been invented, and it […]
At School
Puddles & Choices
My son huffed at a puddle that he didn’t want to be there the other day and said, “The rain is making bad choices!” It made me laugh, because it was cute and funny. And […]
Autism
Autism Shouldn’t Equal Trauma (AA23)
This is going to be very long. And this was the hardest post to write this month. I sat down to write it three or four times before I was actually able to make myself […]