Stubornness

[Guest guest]

I've been reading the emails along this topic and my poor old brain

is churning.

I asked my daughter's TA to join this group to read thes because a

lot of it sounded very familiar.

Some of the suggestions turned my thinking around. I too had

wondered if my daughter was acting out in frustration, lack of

comprehension, or even boredom. Now I have a theory. OK. Here goes.

My daughter has progressed in " stair step " fashion as opposed

to " ramp " which would describe the progress of my other kids. My

other kids learn a bit of something and then a bit more until they

can do it all. My daughter, though, seems to stand in one place and

then one day (usually the day after I give up) just steps up and does

the whole thing.

So, now with all the wonderful discussion on here, I am wondering if

she absorbs the steps as we teach them but does not respond until she

has absorbed them all. Perhaps she gets into her " Mule Mode " when

she has quite thoroughly absorbed whatever it is we are pushing but

does not yet have the whole picture.

What I think I will try with the help of the TA is to paint the whole

picture but then break down the steps.

ie.:

We are going to learn our alphabet but today we will work on only the

vowels. We will soon know all the letters but today these 5 are the

important ones.

We are going to learn the alphabet. Yesterday we worked on the

vowels. Do you remember the vowels? We will review them and then go

on to the letters in your name. We have all the letters up the wall

but today we will only play with the ones in your name.

What do you all think? The example is lame but it sort of explains

my thought process. If she understands the big goal but also

understands that she doesn't have to worry about it all at once,

maybe that will peak her enthusiasm.