How would you feel?

Narrative thinking: We're still plugging away at various aspects of narrative thinking.

1. We know that in order to have any interest in a narrative at all, we need to identify with the characters, and to identify with the characters, we have to be able to imagine how they would feel in the situation that the narrative places them in. To help the Lark develop this ability, Tony suggested that we help him imagine himself in a familiar situation, and help him imagine how he himself would feel. So far, so good. We've tried two different situations, and both times the Lark really seemed to think about the situation and was able to say how he would feel (scared, mad).

2. ACT-OUT: The Lark is definitely getting better at using figures and props to tell our little frog story. As we tell the story, we're focusing on how the frogs feel (hot) and what their goal is (to get cool). Each time we retell the story, the whole thing seems to become clearer in the Lark's mind--not just the sequence, but the setting and the characters' feelings and their goals and the outcome of their actions. This is the key to narrative thinking--to be able to integrate all this information into a coherent and meaningful whole. It's really exciting to watch the Lark putting it all together!

Ownership: The Lark continues to get more and more mindful and responsible during dressing and grooming. He is still reluctant to take ownership of bathing, hair-washing, etc., but we'll get to that.

Math: We ran into a snag today. The Lark has no trouble adding 10 to a number in his head. Today we looked at adding nine to a number by adding 10 and then "going back one." I learned that the Lark does not understand the phrase, "one less than." So before we work on adding nine to a number, we need to work on the idea of "one less than" a number.

Exercise: The Lark did such a good job with his sit-ups, etc. today. We added knee-bends. This is extremely difficult for the Lark, because he has great difficulty squatting down, let along standing back up. This is a good one to work on, but we'll have to take it really slowly.