Sunday, September 4, 2011

Teaching Self Control

Daughter struggles with self-control. For a month I've been giving her the money for her activities at program instead of having staff hold it for her. She spent too much at the second-hand store one week, but the rest of the weeks she's managed not to spend it all. I give her a little extra, in the hopes she'll learn to save money to buy something bigger. She wants a new computer, so I told her that if she saved $100, I'd help her buy one. She has saved $17 from program, and this weekend she counted all her change (which she doesn't consider to be "real" money), and discovered she has another $10. It will be interesting to see if she can manage to save $100. I'm pleased with the way the experiment is working thus far.
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Today we started a second experiment in self-control. I bought some reduced fat cheese sticks at the warehouse store and some beef sticks. I gave her 4 of each to put in the unlocked refrigerator downstairs. I also got out some of my half cup containers and put a larger frozen strawberry in each, and then put sugar free strawberry banana jello in with the strawberry. I gave her 3 of those to put in her refrigerator, and we have another 4 in the refrigerator up here. I explained that she could decide when to eat those things, and when they ran out, I'd give her more, provided she was being responsible about her eating.

She was pleased, and as far as I know, hasn't eaten anything yet. If she can learn self-control, it will open so many options for her. She continues to struggle with rapid cycling. She desperately wants to go out and do things, yet when we get home from an outing she has a huge meltdown. I hope we get the medication figured out quickly!

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