It's been a bit of a rough year with one of my first grade friends who simply detests school work and anything associated with it. His "team" of teachers and therapists have already met several times this year to try to come up with a plan that might encourage this little guy to want to participate at school. So today he had a writing assignment that he had refused to do in class for his teacher and I was going to give it another try to see if maybe ...just maybe....he could be motivated to try. SO let me introduce Rudy the Red Nosed Writing Reindeer! You might have heard about Rudy in your favorite Christmas song, right? Yeah, well he somehow made his way into my bag this morning so that he could see what my first grade friends were writing at school. Can you even believe it?! Let me tell you, my first grade kiddos LOVED Rudy and would have done just about anything to have him sit on the desk to see their "Fantastic First Grade Writing". My less than motivated buddy couldn't wait for his turn to have Rudy watch him write. In fact, he didn't want to STOP writing because he did not want Rudy to go to another friend. Oh yes, he most certainly did finish that writing assignment and asked if Rudy would be back tomorrow to see him write. You can BET that Rudy will be back! If a cute little stuffed animal can motivate my kiddos to write, then it looks like Ms. Jen has a new assistant!
Jen Dermody, OTR/L