he can get away with almost anything. I just melt over those chubby cheeks and sweet blue eyes.
But we finally started ABA. I will say that I was a little hesitant. In my head I imagined a drill sergeant type of person that would come in and bark orders about everything I was doing wrong. We're also not people who can always stick to an exact schedule so I worried that they'd want us to do the same things everything day in the same order and that would just NOT be happening.
I was very happy when Missy arrived. She has so much experience and I can really tell that she really likes Ben and wants him to succeed. So we're working on basic skills right now. Mostly focusing on things like potty training, and elopement (when your child runs away from you or your home), but the big push is on his destructive/mean behaviors. B has a habit of biting unfortunately, and hitting. Currently I have a nice scrape on my nose from where he grabbed it and scratched me intentionally the other day.
To me, parenting B, is just counter intuitive. When he does seeking behavior I revert into normal behavior. I gasp when he knocked off the full glass of diet coke because he was mad that I was on the phone. I've yelled. I've put him in time out. But what I didn't get was that he craved that behavior from me. As Missy explained, he wants attention, and any attention is good attention.
But what do you do when you have diet coke dripping down the wall? Apparently I'm supposed to go get a rag and, hand over hand, make him help me clean it up. He has to learn that his behaviors have consequences. Putting him in his room only works for a minute because he's happily entertaining himself within a few seconds.
So we're both being reprogrammed. I think it's going to be harder on me than him.
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