Homeschooling - Observing Akshat - A salient, ongoing process

Discontinuing Akshat's school was a blessing in disguise. I started getting more time to spend with him. As I mentioned in the last posts, I made a schedule for him and myself too. With my experience, I can say that homeschooling requires a lot of planning, self-discipline, guidance and, resources.  


During our homeschooling days, I did something which I am sure all the mothers do and experience - observing their child. 


As I used to spend more time with him now, I could able to observe him more. How does he learn a particular thing? How much time does he take to grasp a concept? How much time does he lay hold of to process the instruction? Through which medium does he respond best? How much time does he take to respond? Why does he suddenly react towards something? Why does he humm or scream? (Even today, he humm but, now he can tell me the reason). He makes different types of sounds for different needs and, now I can identify for what he's making that sound. (Just like a toddler does). Though he uses an app to express his needs and wishes, many times he makes those sounds and, I know that this one means hungry, the other one means sensory or irritation, etc.


So, when I closely monitored all these things for a longer time, I acquainted his strengths and challenges. At that time, I did not know the technical terms as I was purely working on my observations and intuitions, however, all these helped me to improve my knowledge of Autism and evolve as a human being and a mother. After a long process of observation and analysis, now I know about Akshat's


  1. Strengths: He is a keen observer, listener and, visual learner. Language is his stronghold. Gradually, he is showing interest in writing and communication.
  2. Challenges: Of course, they are many and keep coming regularly. I need to work on his self-regulation, managing himself when I won't be around. He needs more practice while communicating with others. 
  3. Interests: I keep exploring them though he has very few.
  4. Cognitive Skills (Learning style)
  5. Sensory needs:- He has auditory, vestibular, proprioceptive and, olfactory issues, for which he needs a sensory diet regularly.
  6. Play and Social: He is now gradually opening up to online classes and likes to chitchat. He says he doesn't have any interest in sports.
  7. Language (Receptive and Expressive) and Communication
  8. Behavior
  9. Adaptive skills (self-help and survival skills)
  10. Food habits
  11. Sleep patterns.

Observing him is the crux of my learnings and my journey so far. I am still doing that every day and learning something new each day. I missed taking any data for my observations but took many videos of activities I did with Akshat. 


The more I observe him, the more I know him and, it takes me closer to him and helps build a stronger bond. It is the foundation of the trust between us.


Presenting one more conversation between Akshat and me. I take story sessions every week for neuro diverse kids and one of my friend asked Akshat his opinion about the sessions. This is what he has to say...


12-7-21

Me. Renuka aunty was asking me what do you think about story sessions…do you like them…how do you feel when all gathered online…etc.

Him. The story sessions are hilarious. Renuka Aunty Please send
your thoughts to mamma. The sessions are so boring that no one can interested.

Me. ok…I am telling stories that way because the children are of different age and understanding…I told you this before also…

Him. Please get of it that they do not understand the story.

Me. If I don’t make the story easy and relatable then how am I able to explain different concepts.

Him. They will understand themselves.

Me. Ohk….what about expression…

Him. Yeah…Please teach expression.

 When this conversation happened, I realized that how minutely he's observing everything and has an opinion on it. 

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 24, 2021 at 6:07 AM

    Absolutely correct. Thanks to lockdown I too could observe my son closely and bond with him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SoumyaOctober 24, 2021 at 9:22 AM

    Wow Akshat we look forward to your comments dear.Thnx so much.

    ReplyDelete
  3. рдкाOctober 24, 2021 at 7:41 PM

    Akshat is a big thinker and critic :) By giving his honest opinion, he can contribute in designing a teaching pattern to aid the learning process for him and other children. @Ritu this is so well written and detailed and I am sure is very useful to other parents. Keep going! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ritu Ranka RassayOctober 25, 2021 at 2:06 AM

      Good observation...Even I showed him a few videos of children and he was able to analyse them correctly...I believe that the views of a neuro-diverse person are most important as they feel it and goes through all, so can express about it the best.

      Delete

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