For the past seven weeks my son and I have both been part of a 14 week long study at our local childrens hospital. The basis of this study is to work with kids with autism to help create plans to better help them in daily living and/or social skills, since the plans out there are currently lacking.
It's not a bad group, I don't think. My son spends his time with the other teens in the group and I spend my time with the moms. We each go over the same information, but the teens are actually doing hands on what us moms are just discussing, and coming up with game plans on how to implement this information at home.
One of the things we do is, each week, we sit down with our child and come up with a daily contract, on things we know they need to become more independent on, and have them help us figure out what a good "reward" would be for completing each task.
No surprise to me, my son is monetarily motivated, so he gets paid for each task, and ask he shows stronger independence on each item the amount he earns starts to go down. We also add a new goal each week, based on what the kids are learning about that week in group.
I have learned that I've done a pretty damn good job at getting my son to be independent so far, thanks to putting things down in writing, like this contract, but it's also really helped me see where he needs more help. One of his tasks, that isn't listed in the picture below, is using the microwave daily... he has been doing that for YEARS! so when I asked him how much he should earn for completing that task he surprised me by saying "I should earn zero because I already know how to use the microwave, that's like paying me to breath."
I don't know why it took me seven weeks into this to think of making the chart on the chalkboard like I have in the photo below, It's legit right next to where I keep the contract so he can see what he needs to do.
A little more information with this contract... there are only so many "prompts" from me that he is allowed to get and still earn his money, after that agreed on amount of prompts he no longer earns the money listed. Not only has this shown him that when I tell him he needs to do something, he needs to do it, but it has also shown ME how many times I just naturally tell him to do something.
The first two weeks in this group I would find myself reminding him more times than were allowed, per the agreed upon amount of prompts, and he would get mad at me and tell me I was causing him to lose money. It opened my eyes a lot. Now, seven weeks into it, the things that have been on the contract since he start, I don't have to remind him about anymore. He just automatically does them. The newer added items, he still needs a prompt, but he's getting so great at just looking for the contract now to see what needs to be done.
I am so excited to see how things are going to be in seven more weeks when we are done with this study.
Also, ignore where it says "I am poop," lol, that was the most clear he has written anything in a long time and I refuse to erase it. I will probably cut out that part of the wall if we move out of this house!
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