Play Therapy
Friday, July 25, 2008 by Amy
So Riley had her play therapy appointment yesterday. She had been going every week, now she will be going every other week. Anyway, I don't remember if I explained the sand-box thing that the therapist does, but...she has a flat, wide, and long plastic bin with sand in it. She has the child arrange animals, people, whatever they want (she has like 1000 different things that the kids can use from dinosaurs, predators, pirates, "bad guys," ocean things, etc.). The box represents the sub-conscious, or something like that. Whatever they put in the box has symbolic value and is open to interpretation. She'll look to see if they put food and water in the box, or bad guys, if the "children" are protected, where the parents are, etc. Anyway, Riley loves this activity. She's done it twice. Yesterday she put lions and tigers in there and they ate some of the other animals, but she explained that "it's sad that predators have to kill other animals, but they need to eat too. They have babies to feed. It's sad, but it has to happen." The therapist said that Riley is right where she should be in her emotional intelligence, but her cognitive abilities are way, way, way, way, advanced for her age (her words) and her reasoning skills and understanding of cause and effect are far far far far beyond her age (her words). She said that she will have problems with that and she needs to be challenged all the time. All. The. Time.
So Riley and Matthew were playing with Riley's toy double stroller yesterday. It was so cute. They had it worked out that Riley would push it on the street and flat surfaces and Matthew would push it in the grass or uphill. They were going on a hike, they said. They stopped in the shade to "rest" and brought an umbrella in case it "rained" and made sure the hood of the stroller was up if they were in the sun and down if they were in the shade. I sneaked a couple of pictures:
Speaking of the baby stroller, later in the day Riley was playing with it behind our house. This stroller was given to her by the girls across the street who out-grew it. Anyway, it's one of her prized possessions. She's willing to play cooperatively with it (as long as her rules are followed) but unless someone is involved in her scenario, she does not want it touched. So we have two boys next door. They are very well-behaved and rather passive. One of them is, I don't know, slow? He doesn't read social cues very well and doesn't understand boundaries. If Rudi is sitting out front reading, he will sometimes stand there and stare at him. Or if I'm taking the girls somewhere he will get all up in our business and ask us all sorts of questions about where we are going until his father or mother intervenes. Anyway, Riley told him not to touch her stroller. He would come over and lay a hand on it. She would ask him again, saying it's her special toy and she didn't want him to touch it. He kept doing it. So Riley hauled off and hit and kicked and pushed him. He ran away laughing and then came back and touched her stroller. She beat him up again. He didn't understand that it wasn't a game and that Riley was really getting mad. I was watching from the back window and came out. The boy comes over and says "She's mean, she pushed me in the head." What am I supposed to do? She asked nicely and she has a right to defend herself and her stuff. I told him "I'll talk to her about that, but she did ask you to not touch her stroller, what else is she supposed to do?" I'm sorry, I'm not one of those people who think that violence is always wrong. She tried verbal reasoning first, and it didn't work. You know, later on if someone is picking on one of her friends, or her little sister, and she doesn't step in by any means necessary to defend them, she'll have hell to pay if I hear about it. Sorry...no, I'm not sorry. So there. Sticking my tongue out.
Avery is quite the artist nowadays. She loves loves loves painting and "doing artwork" as she says. And she always has to tape it to the wall for it do dry and for Daddy to see it. Daddy must always see it.
Here's Little Sweetheart sleeping in the guinea pig cage. I don't know what I have to do to get a good picture of a black cat. I have to delete so many because she looks like a black blob and her head and her butt are indistinguishable. She loves Riley's old Easter basket. Loves it. She was in the basket chasing her tail around yesterday and I took many pictures, but none turned out. Poo. She's really cute, though. You'll have to trust me.
Oh, and a cute picture of Avery with the water balloons. I'm also the neighborhood water balloon lady. Yes, her face is clean. That's a scrape on her nose. She fell on her face in the street.
So Riley and Matthew were playing with Riley's toy double stroller yesterday. It was so cute. They had it worked out that Riley would push it on the street and flat surfaces and Matthew would push it in the grass or uphill. They were going on a hike, they said. They stopped in the shade to "rest" and brought an umbrella in case it "rained" and made sure the hood of the stroller was up if they were in the sun and down if they were in the shade. I sneaked a couple of pictures:
Speaking of the baby stroller, later in the day Riley was playing with it behind our house. This stroller was given to her by the girls across the street who out-grew it. Anyway, it's one of her prized possessions. She's willing to play cooperatively with it (as long as her rules are followed) but unless someone is involved in her scenario, she does not want it touched. So we have two boys next door. They are very well-behaved and rather passive. One of them is, I don't know, slow? He doesn't read social cues very well and doesn't understand boundaries. If Rudi is sitting out front reading, he will sometimes stand there and stare at him. Or if I'm taking the girls somewhere he will get all up in our business and ask us all sorts of questions about where we are going until his father or mother intervenes. Anyway, Riley told him not to touch her stroller. He would come over and lay a hand on it. She would ask him again, saying it's her special toy and she didn't want him to touch it. He kept doing it. So Riley hauled off and hit and kicked and pushed him. He ran away laughing and then came back and touched her stroller. She beat him up again. He didn't understand that it wasn't a game and that Riley was really getting mad. I was watching from the back window and came out. The boy comes over and says "She's mean, she pushed me in the head." What am I supposed to do? She asked nicely and she has a right to defend herself and her stuff. I told him "I'll talk to her about that, but she did ask you to not touch her stroller, what else is she supposed to do?" I'm sorry, I'm not one of those people who think that violence is always wrong. She tried verbal reasoning first, and it didn't work. You know, later on if someone is picking on one of her friends, or her little sister, and she doesn't step in by any means necessary to defend them, she'll have hell to pay if I hear about it. Sorry...no, I'm not sorry. So there. Sticking my tongue out.
Avery is quite the artist nowadays. She loves loves loves painting and "doing artwork" as she says. And she always has to tape it to the wall for it do dry and for Daddy to see it. Daddy must always see it.
Here's Little Sweetheart sleeping in the guinea pig cage. I don't know what I have to do to get a good picture of a black cat. I have to delete so many because she looks like a black blob and her head and her butt are indistinguishable. She loves Riley's old Easter basket. Loves it. She was in the basket chasing her tail around yesterday and I took many pictures, but none turned out. Poo. She's really cute, though. You'll have to trust me.
Oh, and a cute picture of Avery with the water balloons. I'm also the neighborhood water balloon lady. Yes, her face is clean. That's a scrape on her nose. She fell on her face in the street.
