I thought you all would appreciate this: Yesterday I was reading a book about autism at work called 'andy and his yellow frisbee' when it's question time one kid who just came from mexico asks 'what's a frisbee' i tell him i have one in my office that he can have. suddenly about 15 hands go up they're questions-'what's a frisbee' heheh they all knew but wanted a frisbee to take home. it was hillarious we had a talk about lying obviously but they're such little con artists it cracked me up
kids are funny... and smart. but, yeah, i never thought it was a good idea to give one kid something in front of the whole class and nothing for the other kids... unless you want them to behave like the one kid and then give it to them as well, which is exactly what they expected... i think it's better to keep that stuff to rewards, personally... or share with everybody...
i give this child preferential treatment because it must be incredibly scary coming to a new country-especia,ly in the white suberbun neighborhood i work in. this weeks theme was empathy so i think after our discussion the kids understood why he's getting more from us than we're giving to other kids. plus he's a scolarship kid...one of few so a fisbee's a big deal to him where as the other kids would have little interest in it after 5 seconds. and trust me we spend for my program alone 100 bucks a week on incentives alone-the kids are rewarded heh. i just thought i would share my funny story...but maybe it's not so funny
Lynsey what type of work is it you do, and where you work? I mean in terms of what it's all about etc.. It sounds frustrating, challenging and rewarding all at the same time.