One of those days...

I started work this morning by engaging in a lovely battle of wills with my 3yo client.

I put out his Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) (he is currently working on discriminating between "open box" - the box of toys I bring with me - and "Cheerios" - which is supposed to be out at all times) on the sheet we have on the wall by the kitchen, as always.

He went over, pulled down the "open box" PCS, and immediately started tapping his teeth with it and chewing on it.

I took it away and stuck it back on the wall.

He retrieved it and went back to mouthing the PCS.

This continued for several minutes. He became very frustrated, yelled at me (if he could speak words yet, he'd have been swearing at me, I'm sure), and at one point collapsed on the floor and attempted to bite my heel.

I tried to replace the PCS with a "stim strip" I had in my binder, but he was having none of that. His mother tried giving him some Cheerios, but they wound up on the floor.

Eventually, I picked him up and deposited him on the couch with a piece of ginormous Lego, which he picked up and used for tapping his teeth. Once he was calm, I pulled out my new bubbles and we had a nice quiet moment.

*****

This afternoon, the fun started when my 4yo client decided he should take all the toilet paper off the roll instead of actually using the toilet when it was time to go to the bathroom. (This is something he is capable of doing on his own, when reminded to go, and there is a picture schedule in the bathroom to remind him what to do.) I walked him through everything and didn't let him do any steps on his own, which resulted in a crying child.

And then the SLP (speech therapist) arrived, and we were attempting to go over the IPP since the update is in a couple of weeks, and the boys decided they should fight constantly. Basically, my client never managed to get down to a solid state of calm, and so every time his 2yo brother did something "wrong" there was a meltdown.

We ended the session early.

*****

All of this while I have a head cold. It's so much fun working with kidlets sometimes!

So, yeah. I'm about to go try to sort out the back entry of my house. We've been living here for nearly three weeks or something, and it's still mostly boxes. I'd like to be able to put the guinea pig cage in its proper place by the end of the day, since he's currently stuck in a room I don't visit very often, and he's a rather social little guy.

And, of course, you all know that I really do love my job and the kids I work with. I wouldn't give this up again unless I absolutely had to!