Entry #19, 16 November 2009

I tried to be more strict with L'e today, giving him warnings and explaining unacceptable behaviour, and finally putting him in time out. Normally when the other staff do it, he'll cry loudly as soon as he's sat down. When I did it however, his mood didn't seem to change at all.

He remained happy and playful, often times not even bothering to stay in the spot I put him in. I did use a loud and harsh tone of voice, but he just didn't seem to be bothered. Maybe I didn't yell enough, or wasn't rough enough, or maybe he just feels too close to me. He likes to sit in my lap, as well as be picked up by me, as I usually carry and swing him around in a playful manner.

I saw S'r today with the triangles he had previously arranged according to the colours of the rainbow. Again I felt it was just a coincidence, as he didn't seem to be arranging the triangles in any pattern. Rather, he was digging through them and stacking them in coloured pairs, i.e. 2 red ones, 2 blue ones, etc.

Once he had all the coloured pairs he needed however, he promptly arranged them according to the colours of the rainbow. I recognised the colours this time because there were some cartoon rainbows on the window.

Outdoors, S'r enjoys a game, where he holds an adult's hand and steps from number to number, from 1 to 5. This time however, he stepped from 1, stepped onto 2, and seemed frustrated. He made an annoyed sound, moved back to 1, then back to 2, and repeated the cycle once again.

The next time, he threw himself on the ground, kicking his legs and made more annoyed sounds, as though he was frustrated. He then repeated the whole sequence another time, starting from 1 and ending on the ground.

He also seemed to make eye contact with me on a few occasions, although only for a very short time. Previously, however, his eyes would just float past me as though I wasn't even there.

Moving Forward

I can't shake the feeling that I get more results from L'e by trying to reason with him rather than yell and punish him. He's also a very energetic child, so I really don't blame him if he can't sit still for long periods of time. His energetic movements also translates into him being a bit more rough than other children, which tends to upset them sometimes and land him in trouble although he was just playing on his own.

Apparently a lot of S'r's behaviour is according to schemata, which are patterns of repeatable behaviour. I wonder if the way he acted on the numbers is some sort of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, whereby he felt that "something" was wrong about the process, only he couldn't figure out what, and therefore had to keep repeating it till he felt it was right?