Friday, March 5, 2010

Productive Date Night

Thursday evening, John and I attended a workshop seminar entitled "Managing Challenging Behaviors" sponsored by the Early Childhood Center where Kyle attends preschool. The seminar focused on techniques for managing challenging behaviors, learning the functions of problem behavior, how to identify the function of behavior, and how to teach a replacement behavior which achieves the same function.

We thought this would be beneficial to attend, to assist us with managing some of Kyle's not so "wonderful" behaviors. What we have learned is that Kyle's behavior issues are attention seeking. He tends to "act out" when he isn't getting the attention he wants (or thinks he deserves) from us. Most of the time, he wants our undivided attention and will go to great lengths in order to achieve his goal. Honestly, we didn't come home with as much knowledge on the subject as we were hoping, but we did learn one important fact. Based on the attendance at the workshop, we certainly are not the only parents struggling with some difficult behaviors. We were able to speak with another couple who has a son about the same age, and it was helpful to hear what they have experienced with their son. It was a small world because their son was also born prematurely and spent time in the same NICU where Kyle was for eighty six days.

After the workshop, we did eat dinner at a great Italian restaurant...Rich and Charlie's. Kyle was with a sitter while we were away and they seemed to have a great time together...doing crafts, reading, playing with trains, etc. It's always comforting to know that he is comfortable with babysitters and doesn't have a tough time with the separation....this proves he is growing up!!

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