Creating a more rountine enviorment

I know I havent posted for awhile, alot of constant attention and therapy has been needed as my son is in the summer cycle of his disorder. He has come along way since last year, but has more to go.

Since his release from the therapy group home back in March, we have had a battle of keeping him consistant with his enviorment. My son tells me he is tired of all this therapy and just wants to live normally like all the other teen. I truely understand where he is coming from, but when he makes poor choices, becomes a hermit, refuses to leave the computer or the house, I get deply concerned.

So luckly I was able to find a respit service that will be providing 8 hours of in home services aweek which will be a total of 32 hours a month.

His therpist spends two hours a week with him, and then his CTA ( Community Treatment Aide) will be spending 6 hours a week working on social skills, anger managment, self esteme, hygene and making better choices. He doesnt know about the CTA yet as he isnt thrilled about the in home therpist.

Truly I had no choice since he woulnd go to the center I had to find away to make sure he gets the proper treatment he needs. This therepist is not your traditional kind where they ask how was your week and what are you feelings. she has a different approach that I like, when she comes in, she wil ask me " Tell me something good that you son did this week. I will tell her for example when he was helpful, things he did for himself and anything he may have accomplished.

After that she then will ask what was it that he needed to work on and I will tell her that he needs to control his impulses or he threw a fit because he was told no and though he didnt get his way he made the choice to sleep all day vs finding something else to do. Then she will offer to my son some techniques he can use and makes it very brief and then she plays a game with him. When they play a game she chooses the ones that can give him messages like when he played the game sorry and had to move back 4 spaces she asked him was there anytime this week you felt sorry for youself or for what you did and my son will say yes and she said so when you made that poor choice you actually went backwards kind of like in this game huh? My son said yes.

That is only one of the games, but I thought that was a great idea, it helps the child/teen learn how to cope and make better choices through everyday games. Many times when my son would see a therapist they kept it very clinical and my son had a hard time opening up because of the coldness of the session and with this new approach he has responded much better and has opened up a little.

This week he has four goals to accomplish and we made them simple for a sense of accomplishement. His first goal is to get 8 hours a sleep each night, to brush his teeth each day, to shower as needed and to do at the very least one choir, each time he accomplishs his goal for the day then he gets to the music he likes on my sterio, or watch a movie, or pick a family game to play. At the end of the week if he can hit 5 out of 7 then he can get an item of his choice that is no more than $10.00 if he cant find anything then he can save the money to spend for later.

Now I dont always have the money to give so I do exchanges such as if I cant afford to give him the money then we go to the skate park, to swimming, or he gets to go to his friends house so you can be inovative.

In home services arent for everyone and we have just started and the irritating factor is that I work all day then have them come it for two hours Monday - Thursday and that leave only Friday- Sunday to actually spend quality time with my son, so I will keep you posted of how it is working out.

I can tell you last night my son hated the fact his therapist was coming over and wanted me to cancel which I didnt and he did throw a fit, I mena nasty he wanted to break a glass on the table , he threw the broom at me and wanted to throw the jar of peanuts across the room which I was able to redirct him. When he got the glass and the butter knife from the kitchen I immediately took then away from him and asked him what he was trying to prove because all I see him doing his making a poor choice and possible ended up in the hospital for irractional behavior. He said I dont want her to come and I am so mad I can break that glass and I siad too bad she is coming over so you will have to cope with it. Of course he didnt want to and that is when he got the broom and I know he was only trying to manipulate me and it wasnt working, when the therapist rang the buzzer he bee lined to his room and wouldnt come out for about 10 mins but when he heard that the therapist would go in is room we would just take the door off he came out and told us how he felt and she told him that was fine to feel upset but she wasnt going anywhere until he participated.

Needless to say he did participate and ended up having fun playing the game they played and was in a good mood the rest of the evening.

Now Sunday will be a different story that is when the CTA makes thier first visit and my son has no idea that I have this in place. This out to be fun.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

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