Charts

It's the end of another weekend.  Ours started out fabulous--Saturday was one of the best days we've had as a family in a very long time.  We actually interacted as an entire family, and everyone pretty much got along.  That does not happen very often in this house. 

Sunday, however, was another story.  It had it's high points, but it's low points were very low.  Emerson has been having problems with violent behavior lately and we're not sure what's going on.  It really started manifesting itself regularly--as opposed to the once in a blue moon we had been seeing of it--last weekend.  When he gets frustrated or upset or overstimulated (we're guessing that this is what's happening when he starts acting out physically, anyway), he's been laughing, acting silly and then kicking and slapping us.  When he really gets going, it changes to punches,biting and even choking.  I can' remember how many times today he slapped us, punched us in the face or stomach or kicked us.  It's gotten to the point that we're loathe to leave him alone when he's playing with Parker.  We used to let them play while we did something in the next room, since they tend to run in and out of whatever room Thom and I are in anyway, but last weekend Emerson bit Parker while pretending to be a carnivorous dinosaur.  He has also started shoving Parker, quite hard, when he doesn't want him in his bedroom. 

We're not sure what's going on with Emerson or why he's suddenly acting this way, but I did create a "Calm Down" area for him in his room where he needs to go whenever he starts acting that way.  It's just a bean bag in front of his bookshelves at the end of his bed, but he can go there whenever he feels the need (or when we send him there) and close the door so no one bothers him.  After he takes some deep breaths (which we've been practicing) and feels calmer, he can come back out a join us.  It's his safe place.  He went their twice on Sunday--after we sent him there--and both times he came out saying he felt better...and was like a whole different child--calm, quiet and no longer acting up.  It seems to have worked on those occasions, at least, but I'm looking forward to Thursdays ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis)workshop.

But that's not why I'm posting tonight.  I wanted to share Emerson's Routine & Reward Charts with you.  I designed them at home and thn brought them in to work for Stephen to print out for me.  He put the 2 charts on Coreplast for me (24"x18" corrugated plastic--what you say yard signs made out of) and laminated all my little pieces for me!  Thanks Stephen!  They weren't quite thick enough for repeated use, so I cut them out, put double-sided tape on the backs, taped them to cardstock and then cut them out again.  A bit of a job considering there were over 250 pieces, but well worth the effort.

First up is his reward chart.  He gets stickers for getting dressed by himself (including shoes), playing quietly during nap time, putting on his pajamas by himself, brushing his own teeth, and picking up his toys without being told.  But he can lose stickers if he hits, bites, kicks or terrorizes the cats.  Once he gets 5 stickers across, he can choose a little treat--mini marshmallows, Pez, gummy bears or a sticker to wear to school.  After filling up all 25 spaces, he gets to choose a big treat--watching any cartoon he wants (even on a school night), watching dinosaur videos on the computer, receive a small dinosaur figurine (my co-worker bought us 3 bags full of little dino figurines, so we're stocked for a while), or go to the bookstore for a treat and a new book.  Here it is:

I ran out of time, so none of these have Velcro yet, but that's how I plan to attach everything.  I have a 20ft roll of Velcro just waiting to be cut!

We're not using real stickers.  Since he's dino crazy, I went online and found a dinosaur store that sold a bunch of figurines and I picked out 25 that he was familiar with.  I added their names and printed them out on circles:

He will be able to choose which one he wants to place on his reward chart.  Here is how it will look all filled in:

Next up is his Routine Chart.  While transitions are hard for him, our daily routine from week to week is pretty much the same and I'm not so sure he really needs this.  However, it will help him get ready for any changes we will have, and it will be a good way to help him learn the days and months as well as keep track of the passing of time.  I did the days of the week in one color and the weekends in a different color.

 I did the months of the year, the days of the week and the numbers 1-31:

 And I did as many different activities as I could think of possibly needing. 

 I forgot the library...and something else that I've already forgotten again!  But I also want to do a picture for each holiday to use with the chart, as well as  generic something--maybe an arrow--to designate which day we're on.

Here's an example of what next weeks schedule would look like (provided I had the Velcro in place so we could actually use it! LOL)

I laid it our like a calendar, but I'm now trying to decide if the Sunday should represent the Sunday from the same weekend as the Saturday we have scheduled--and then we'd do the schedule for the following week on Sunday night) or if we should do the scheduling on Saturday night, in which case the Sunday would be the day following the Saturday we do the scheduling.  Not sure yet.

Hopefully, I'll get the Velcro cut to size and applied to all the pieces so we can begin using them both.  My boss saw these after they were printed and said I should market them! LOL  Might not be a bad idea...maybe I could make a few bucks to put towards Emerson's therapy!

Until next time, my friends....