Today I got reminded vividly of one of the issues I had with Mark's work at school. The problem was that Mark typically only had a 15 minute times span in which to do his tasks. So he tended to get a lot of HOH/verbal prompting to help him get the task done in 15 minutes. Apparently, I picked up this habit while going to school with him. Bad, Kim!
So today, Math took a while longer. Because we reviewed the material, and then I asked questions. I did not prompt. I did not do HOH. I merely asked Mark to "give x blocks to Mommy". I held up the number of fingers for the number with one hand, and held the other hand out flat. I did not give any other responses until he placed the blocks in my hand. If he was incorrect, I calmly said "No. Let's try again." and I would set the blocks back out. When he got it right, he got hugs, cheers, and kisses. He got the numbers 1 - 4 within 5 tries each time. The number 5 was not so successful though. After 20 tries I told him to stop when he had 5 blocks, and we counted them. We did this 3 more times before I called it quits for that part of math. No it wasn't perfect, and yes he made many mistakes. But he's learning to do it for himself without prompting.
And I did the same thing for the 25 piece puzzle. And the 12 piece. I only interfered when he was becoming overly fixated on a piece that he wasn't ready for. I would take the piece away for a bit so that he could move on. By the end of the 12 piece he was pretty happy. In a little while, I'll do it again with reading.
Basically, I have to remember to do it in his time frame, not mine. Otherwise I'm not really helping him at all, I'm enabling him. And that only hurts him. And that is so much easier to say and write than it is to actually do. But I know that if I do it, his time frame will become shorter and his confidence in his skills will increase. (and how many times did I ask for patience when I was younger???? I'm definitely learning it now.)
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