Jam is currently 5 years old.
With most of his friends starting kindergarten recently, it's got me thinking about what we're doing with Jam in terms of development. Actually, it's something I'm *always* thinking about and have always had solid long-term ideas and plans in my head but I've never organized and written them down formally before.
Jam turned 5 a few months ago and is still in his foundation years- learning, practicing and building up the skills he'll need later for more sophisticated development and learning. It's really important to me to plan beyond the short-term for him and keep in mind the very long-term skills he's going to need- for him to actually thrive and not just survive or get by.
I think that can best be achieved using an approach focusing on his strengths which are his creative imagination, global thinking and interest in many different topics, rather than on his areas of challenge. And always keeping in mind that he's an introverted, sensitive, quite strong-willed kid.
There are five areas I focus on (in no particular order as they're all important)- Social, Physical, Emotional, Intellectual and Self-Care. And here are the ways we're addressing them for the fourth quarter of 2013:
Social:
* he's taking a kindergarten prep/social skills building class for a few hours two times a week where he can get more comfortable being around kids his age and put into practice cooperation, compromise and conflict resolution skills. He's expressed enough interest in making friends that I feel he's mentally ready for this. And it's an art-based class so good for more motor skills development.
* he's also taking a weekly drama class led by his former preschool teacher for the same social skills building reasons above. Plus he loves imaginative pretend play like this so I think it will be easier for him to succeed.
* we'll continue with weekly playdates with his 3 to 4 closest friends.
Physical:
Jam will continue with his weekly:
* horseback physical therapy (hippotherapy)
* integrated movement physical therapy
* free play gymnastics (since it's the last year he's eligible to attend)
* non-formal swimming time
This all helps in coordinating his body and brain to work together and also for motor planning (due to the dyspraxia). And works on his overall strength, endurance and stamina (due to hypotonia).
Emotional:
We'll also continue to work daily on:
* flexible thinking strategies
* developing coping skills for anxiety and perfectionism
* becoming more self-aware of what he's feeling and what he needs
* communicating those things to us and others (self-advocacy)
Intellectual:
* continue working on his hand strength in preparation for handwriting/letter formation- more scissor work, gluing, tracing
* continue with light exposure to the alphabet (as his interest level dictates)
* a slightly more focused approach to numbers recognition (since he seems to be interested)
* puzzles and mazes
* introduce more breadth of possible topics of interest through books and videos. He's not too interested in depth and details yet.
Self-Care:
* work on completing toilet training, especially in regards to his functional constipation (this is a big one and includes getting the doctor involved again. Sigh….)
* get back to working on getting his socks and shoes on by himself and also being more involved with dressing himself
* work on having him willingly do more things for himself as they get easier physically
NOTE: All subject to change without notice! ;)
You've probably noticed that there aren't many specific goals with measurable results. The kid is only 5! Having problems with perfectionism, the whole 'goals and results' game would just be setting us up for failure. I'm not driving Jam or myself crazy with that stuff yet (if ever).
Really, these are more like guidelines to visit and re-evaluate every few months to get an idea on where Jam's at, what's been working and what hasn't. Because Jam has dyspraxia and SPD issues, it's important to remember that all these things that we do require an enormous amount of his effort and energy. And he still needs a huge amount of downtime in order to avoid heightened anxieties, intensities and resulting behavior problems (which we have not had in a long time). So I'm always reminding myself of this when those doubts creep in about not 'doing enough' or progressing 'fast enough'.
My only real goal right now is to maintain the daily rhythm that works for us which has enabled him to come as far as he has.