Dancing to her own tune

I’ve joined a group of mums to answer a Monday question. Yesterday’s is: “What does Coraline like doing at the moment?”

Coraline likes pressing buttons in books which produce music, and leafing through books.

I felt good about this when we had everything going on outside of that too such as seeing friends, outings to soft plays, face-to-face therapies etc.

During lockdown weekend days recently I started to think…”hmm, she just likes pressing buttons in books, she’s not interested in the rest of her toys and she definitely doesn’t like to sit to do set activities from her therapists”.

We have blocks for building, little hoops on a post, a shapes basket, puzzles, rolling a ball back and forth and so on; she’s not interested.

It makes me feel guilty, like I should be doing more, especially if we are not doing the flashcards and activities as it’s easier to let them slip.

Then, lo and behold, I was delivering some soaps from our business locally and I had a doorstep conversation with a woman who had taught children with special educational needs for years. I asked her about Coraline not being interested in her toys (upon meeting her for the first time!)

She told me the toys were too advanced for where Coraline is at, especially in terms of dexterity. She also said, a parent doing an activity doesn’t cut it! If she’s around other children she will be motivated to copy them. Then she asked, “what does Coraline like?” Well, the answer is anything to do with music.

She loves nursery rhymes, a little keyboard, a little xylophone, a tambourine, a snail with musical buttons. This lady told me to make fun games with the things she likes and centre play and learning around this.

It’s all about how you look at it.

Kevin and I decided that we will spend 15 minutes together daily with Coraline as a team to make it fun on the set activities and flashcards. We will build that habit of sitting for them, which she got out of when we stopped going to the classes during lockdown. Persistence with that.

For the rest; acceptance, trust, love and joy in play.

She’s going to flourish by doing what she loves, as she’s motivated by it. Dancing to her own tune.