Three Time's a Charm!

Don't you love when a strategy works? I have two new students ("Jeff" and "Sue") who are both autistic and brother and sister. Jeff is 11 and Sue is 8. I tutor them in their home. During my first session with Jeff, he did well-just a little active and easily distracted. Sue, however, was screaming in her room when I worked with Jeff and when it was her turn, she gave me about 10 minutes on task, then insisted she wanted to go play and began to cry. In the background, we could hear Spongebob on TV, so that didn't help. I distracted her with pictures on my phone for a few minutes and when she was calm, we worked some more. We played a learning game and when it was over, she again began to cry, insisting she had to play, wanted her dad, wanted her teacher... I told her she had one more activity to do which would take 5 minutes and then we could be done or she could cry until the end of the session, which was 10 minutes. I know, mean, huh?

Well, session 2 came along the next week and I brought a Treasure Box. Sue and I had a repeat of session 1. The pictures didn't work this time. So, as a last resort, I pulled out the Treasure Box and told Sue she could pick something out if she worked with me a little longer. I was worried she might decide she wanted her treasure right then and I would defeat the purpose, but she calmed down and began to focus. I cut the session short by 10 minutes, before she became frustrated and let her choose a goodie. I told her that the next time, she would have to work with me the entire time without any tears to get to pick from the Treasure Box.

Session 3, later that week: Sue was ready to get started as soon as I came into their home! The first thing I did was put the Treasure Box on the table. She asked about it and I repeated the rules for her to get to pick something from it. I worked with her first and we had so much fun! We played lots of learning games, read and did math. She stayed focused for an entire hour! Yeah!

It pays to be flexible! Have you found a "hook" that worked with a reluctant learner?