Chuck E. Cheese and the Lining Up of Objects
Sunday we met Rod, Rhonda & little Madeline at Chuck E. Cheese. Brian, Janeen and their girls called just as we had arrived and decided to come along as well. They had never done the Chucke E. Cheese thing before with their kids so they may have been a tad nervous. I think everyone had a great time.
When you first arrive at you notice the noise level. It can be quite loud. It is always a shock to me. Maizie has learned to take it all in stride. The first thing we do is place our order and purchase tokens. Dinner and a hundred tokens keeps us busy for about two and a half hours. I remember when our trips were only about thirty minutes long. Progress!
Ever since Maizie was a toddler she liked to put things in some sort of order. Many times it did not make sense to me but for her these "arrangements" of objects were important. The first thing she did as a toddler that made me wonder was when she would repeatedly get up in the middle of the night and put all of her toys, clothes, everything she owned under her twin sized bed. I would wake to find everything fit so tightly under her bed I could barely pull anything out. At first I was in awe. I carefully put everything away and hoped she would never do it again. Much to my amazement she continued this nightly activity for weeks. There were many mornings I just stood there and cried from exhaustion.
Without really realizing what we were doing, we taught her activities to replace this ritual with. Sorting and pushing play doh into meticulous little chunks kept her busy for a while. I remember showing her how to play with Little People figurines. She really had no interest in role playing with them but lining them up peaked her interest. So, we lined them up together. Little by little the lining up of toys replaced her night time job of pushing all her belongings under the bed. Whew. I was so glad when she moved on from that. Instead of a big mess I woke to find her toys in carefully constructed rows or circles around her room.
Maizie's interest in aligning things is still alive and well. Before she played any games she began sorting her tokens according to years. We had fun helping her put the years in order. Maizie wanted to find a token of the year she was born. Yes! A way to talk a bit about the passage of time and years. There was only one token from 1997! So...she saved that coin for last. Very cute.
I have noticed areas where her desire to place things in rows has helped her learn a skill. Puzzles is the biggest area of increasing skill. Maizie will lay out the puzzle pieces in rows around her desk. Over time she has begun organizing them according to colors or edges. She does not do that every time but is toying with this new organizational method and is becoming quite good at it.
Now, if we could only get these lining up skills transferred to understanding the passage of time, understanding a calendar, simple addition, subtraction and remembering important personal information.
Just like in the movie Kung Fu Panda...I have to adjust my attitude and teach her in unique ways. There is certainly nothing wrong with that. It just takes a bit more time, patience and creativity.
What repetitive activities does your child with special needs do that has benefited him or her in other areas?
10 comments:
N1S doesn't really line things up, but he does like to read dates on coins. Then he asks me what happened during each year for each coin. I've already run out of answers. You can only say 'the bicentennial' so many times.
Glad you had fun at Chuck's.
Marla, we too love CEC, and Casey loves the music most of all. When not gorging pizza, he is up front (usually trying to get on the little stage to talk to the mechanical Chuckie, so against the rules, but so cute) and dancing his little heart out.
I was trying to recall a repetative behavior that helps Case, and one was his fascination, or obsession with a USA puzzle map he had when he was 2 or 3. He memorized how to put it together first, then memorzied the states, and then the capitals. Then it was all rote memorization and extremely good spatial planning. Now, as he gets older and goes through school, he still remembers where the states are and the capitals. Very helpful. I could go on but this is your comment section!
Thanks for sharing.
My son is a sorter. He loves to sort things. He will take out the gazillion or so little plastic creatures he has and make 'animal centers' on the train table. He will sort them into the reptile area, the arctic area, the dino area and so on. I always thought it was kind of cool and I guess I have the same need for order in my life, so I can totally appreciate it. I think it helps him process things in general and it will probably help him with math next year. He'll probably love those venn diagrams someday.
Fascinating! It seems to me that Maizie IS learning from the patterning/arranging. It sounds like she is experimenting on finding her own ways to organize and is learning some (some) flexibility —as evidenced in her changing the way she does the puzzle pieces, perhaps. Perhaps the things you hope for can be worked in but in HER way?
I can't say that Nik has any specific repetitive activity which has benefitted him...YET. I think his overall persistence and fascination with how things are put together (or come apart, as the case may often be!) will be a highly useful tool for learning when he is ready.
i remember lining up snacks with maizie when i'd babysit her. it was imperative that it be done BEFORE she could eat it.
CEC overwhelms ME. It makes our sons' heads explode, they go so crazy there, but they have a great time.
"Now, if we could only get these lining up skills transferred to understanding the passage of time, understanding a calendar, simple addition, subtraction and remembering important personal information."
We have exactly the same issues...tons of lining up from a very early age, zero concept of the passage of time or calendar understanding, and no memory of personal information. Right-brain stuff, apparently.
I can't think of a way that TH's lining up of his toys has been beneficial, except that now he does that when he draws--he draws lines and patterns of things--and his art is visually interesting as a result.
With Melissa, it's more the comfort of keeping a strict schedule. Even though they are out of school, she still showers precisely at 8:30 pm, and is in bed at 9:30 exactly. It is what has kept her from meltdowns..routine, routine, routine. When she was younger, she didn't take to change well. But now that's she's older, she feels more in control. We have learned to let her do her thing to keep the sanctity.
Have you ever tried doing addidtion and subtraction on the number line. This helped with Dustin's "order rules" and it helped to grasp it quickly when nothing else worked.
Our kids have so much in common and yet are so different. It is great to be able to blog and learn ideas from one another.
Sheri, thanks for your idea of the number line. We use Lindamood Bell which is very strong on the number line. As you know,part of learning math is visualizing the numbers and their vicinity with one another. For Maizie that is by far the hardest part. Number lines are very important, indeed. Thanks for commenting!
Marla, you do such an amazing job of just letting her be herself, watching for her strengths and interests and using them to inspire her interest in learning. I hope I do half as well when we start homeschooling this fall :)
Post a Comment