using words

[pixiesdaddy]

Just a moment to share in DD's healing post-IVIG that struck me.

 

She went to school for a full day today. It's the first full day she's had since the year started. She did great, but had a minor meltdown when she came home. There was a test at school for which she was not prepared, so the teacher sent it home for me to do with her, and her anxiety spiked again when confronted with it.

 

It was just before dinner, and she kept repeating, "But I'm hungry..." over and over and over and over...

 

I couldn't understand why she was saying she was hungry because I had placed food in front of her.

 

Finally she grabbed a pencil, turned over her paper, and wrote "Thirsty."

 

I gave her water, which she drank. I wrote, "Is something else bothering you?"

 

She wrote, "Test."

 

We set the test aside. Later, at bedtime, I brought up the incident, and she looked completely confused when I said she had been saying she was hungry, as if she thought she had been saying the right words and we just hadn't been able to hear them.

 

Pixiesdaddy

[kim]

What an awesome thing to share. When kids are having that frustrating behavior where they're saying something over and over that doesn't make sense, now parents can understand that they can't find the word or words that they need. How many times have we all done that (well ok, i do it now more than i used to). You know what you want to say, but can't come up with the word? How great that Pixie knew to write the word down. That might be a great tool for parents. When the child isn't making sense, have them write or draw something that they are trying to convey. I sure would say that something positive is happening for her to do that!

 

she looked completely confused when I said she had been saying she was hungry

 

how frustrating that must be for her. I'd feel like trashing a room too, if i was telling someone I was thirsty, and they kept pointing to food.

[pixiesmommy]

I was telling DH about another incident earlier (last week) where I was trying to get her to school and all she would do was lay on the floor and scream "BUT I MISS MY DADDY!!!" and I was getting exasperated with her, UNTIL I realized that it was almost like a tic and was truly separate from what was going on with her. I was able to stand back and take a breath and approach her with "I know you miss Daddy and you need to say it over and over, but you are still going to go to school. You can scream it all you want, but let me help you up so we can put on your coat and shoes while you scream it." She could hear me and actually cooperated, and repeated it and cried all the way to school. As we pulled into the school drive, she then stopped and tearfully said, "I'm soooo sleepy!" I think the sleepy was the problem, not the missing Daddy. She knows what she wants, but for whatever reason, the wrong words keep coming out of her mouth.

 

This is really new, so hopefully it is a "flipping of the pages" type thing and will go away, but thankfully we are learning how not to just listen to her words, but try to look at the WHOLE picture too.