Executive Function

I was talking with Oldest Son about homework a few days ago.  He has a coach he's working with, and I was asking him what they talk about and what I can do to help.  He said one of the things I could do was remind him why homework is important and how he needs to do it to get into a good college.

Last night I was asking him about his homework, and we started talking about why it matters for him.  I said it isn't just about getting into a good college.  He asked if I meant he needs to do it to graduate from high school?

I said no, I'm talking about something else.  As part of his autism, Oldest has significant challenges with "executive function", the parts of the brain that are involved in planning and organizing.  We talked about how eventually he will be done with whatever level of schooling he's going to achieve and will need to get a job.  At any job you have to do some amount of prioritizing, organizing, and planning.  And the jobs that are interesting and pay well (like what I do) require LOTS of executive function in order to succeed.

Oldest doesn't need to do homework in order to master the school curriculum.  But he needs a lot of practice with executive function.  I told him that I think that is where he (we) should focus our attention and energy for homework.

Batman and Bed

I ordered a bunch of stuff for Youngest Son as part of the preparation for my fiancee and her daughter moving in.  He's getting a new loft bed and Batman bedding--sheets, pillowcase, and comforter.  He's going to be sharing his room, so I wanted him to have some cool new stuff.

The bed frame arrived today.  We spent a while working on the assembly, but didn't finish.  His new Batman raincoat also came.  He LOVES it.

Key-pad Lock

In preparation for my fiancee and her daughter moving in next month, I installed a key-pad block on the door to Youngest Son's room (which will be the daughter's room when she moves in).  It eliminates Middle Son's ability to go into the room and get into things that he shouldn't. Currently the only issue is that the goes in and takes Youngest's shirts and wears them as pants.  Irritating, but not serious.  When the daughter moves in, there will be make-up, nail polish, and other things in the room that are potentially dangerous.

I wasn't sure how Youngest would react.  It turned out that he loved it.  He kept coming to me and telling me how he'd pushed the buttons to lock and unlock his room.

Under Again

I thought Middle Son had gotten out of the house.  I was running around frantically.  One of the doors was unlocked, but I didn't see him in his usual outside spot.  I went to check in his room again.

He was lying naked in between the mattress and the box-spring.

Hide and Seek

Youngest Son announced this evening after dinner that he wanted to play hide and seek.  We played for about 15 minutes.  We even managed to get Oldest Son to play along.

Under the Mattress

Last night, I went in to check on Middle Son a little before bedtime.  He was lying underneath his mattress.  I don't think I've every seen him do that before.  Oldest Son was in his room playing his keyboard.  His keyboard is right on the other side of the wall from Middle's bed.  I thought perhaps Middle was hiding from the noise, so I asked him to turn it down.

I mentioned it to my nanny today.  She said Middle had done the same thing to her this afternoon.

I wonder what this is about.

Superhero Stuff

Youngest Son is currently obsessed with Superheroes.  He has lots of Batman and Spiderman.  Not so much Superman.

We were playing Superheroes tonight.  I was chasing him around the house with the Spiderman Jet.  Tons 'o fun.