A Letter from Jonah

Jonah got sent home from daycare this week, for being unmanageable.  He does have some behavioral problems (though hardly severe enough to get him kicked out of daycare...but that appears to be the direction we are headed, which kinda floors my Mommy mind).  So, we are being challenged, as his parents to better understand what makes our little man tick.  They are making one last (er, well, ONLY, as far as I have seen) ditch effort to help the situation, by moving him  up to an older class.  He is already the youngest child in his current class.  So, I composed this following letter from Jonah to his teachers, presuming that if he could articulate everything going on in his little brain, this might be what he would say:

Hi, I’m Jonah.

I’m excited to be in your class, and I know my Mommy and Daddy are really hoping this class is a better fit for me, because they love me so very much, and only want what’s best for their baby. If you have kids, I’m sure you totally get that!!

I want to let you know a few things about me that might help me out in your class:

My strengths:

I am super smart. And, I’m not just saying that. It’s true. Sometimes, I’m a little too smart for my own good. Most things that I learn just stick right in my brain, for good! I’ve been able to identify and name all of my primary colors since I was 18-mos old! For REAL! My mommy even has a video of it! Right now, I know the sound that every letter of the alphabet makes, and I enjoy sounding out words with flashcards at home. So, sometimes it’s easy for me to get bored. As long as you keep me engaged with activities that challenge my little brain, I’ll be good to go! Maybe I could help teach a lesson, if it’s on a topic that I already know. I also love building blocks, playing with cars, and putting together puzzles. I have an affinity for learning music! I love music, and I’m pretty good at singing and pretending like I’m a rock star!! I also do pretty well at tasks that require a great deal of concentration and problem solving!

Since you’re my new teachers, I’m excited that you may be able to help me get better at some of the following things:

1. Appropriate interaction with my friends. For some reason, not yet understood, I have a really difficult time understanding that it is best to take turns talking. I tend to interrupt, and talk only about the things that I want to talk about. Please be patient with me, as this is just a difficult skill for me to grasp. But, my parents are working hard with me, too. It will help me if you remain patient, but remind me that it is polite and good manners to take turns speaking. It might even help if we take times to practice this skill.
2. Regulating my Senses:
1. For some reason, my brain doesn’t process my environment the same way as my friends. I sometimes feel insecure about where my body is in space, and I try to figure that out by getting more pressure on my joints. The fancy name for this is that I am a “proprioception seeker.” If I don’t get enough proprioceptive feedback through appropriate activities, like pedaling a bike, riding a scooter, crawling around on my hands and knees, wheelbarrow racing, bouncing around, doing jumping jacks, and pushing through heavy doors, then I will seek that input through inappropriate means, such as crashing into my friends and throwing myself on the ground. It’s not that I’m trying to be mean when I crash into my friends. It’s just that it’s an easy way for me to get that feedback my body desperately needs. So, it will help me so much if you will be patient and redirect me to an appropriate means for getting my sensory needs met.
2. In the same way that I seek proprioception, I can become over-stimulated by too much noise and chaos. When that happens, I kinda flip-out and start misbehaving, to try to deal with my internal anxiety.
3. We all have quirks, and here are some of mine:
1. I need lots of attention. I’m a lovable, playful kid, and I just want you to notice me. If I feel like you haven’t noticed me in awhile, I may do something just to get you to notice me! Unfortunately, at this point, I really don’t care whether you give me negative or positive attention, as long as you give me some kind of attention. So, if you don’t give me positive attention for the things I’m doing right, I’ll most likely haul off and do something wrong because I’m smart enough to know that that WILL get your attention  So, I guess the best approach to dealing with me is to give me lots of positive attention and praise, even for the simplest things you see me doing right, and basically ignore my negative behaviors. That’s not to say I don’t need to be put in time-out for misbehaving. But, time-out needs to be exactly that: Time-OUT, with absolutely zero interaction from anyone during that time. Not even to argue with me or tell me to be quiet if I’m trying to yell and scream from the time-out place.
2. I take some things very literally. If I correct you on something, I’m not necessarily trying to be a smarty pants. It’s just that sometimes I have a hard time getting my mind around things, if I know they aren’t exactly right. For instance, one time, my uncle playfully offered to give me a “knuckle sandwich,” but I refused because I know that we don’t eat hands! If you ask me to put my hand on the desk, and you accidentally call it a wall, I won’t comply, because it’s not literally “the wall.” Again, it’s not on purpose, and I hope that if you realize I’m just a very literal person, it may help you understand why some things are difficult for me to accept.
3. I get a little out of sorts when my routine is interrupted. It really messes me up to move from one activity to another without sufficient warning. For instance, if we are about to stop playing outside, it will help me a LOT if you give me a little forewarning, like telling me, “Jonah, you can go down the slide 2 more times, and then we have to go inside.” Abrupt changes just tend to throw me off.
4. For some reason, I expect some things to happen only in certain ways. For instance, I have a hard time understanding that it is okay to pray at times other than in church, at mealtime, and at bed time. If my Mommy tries to get me to pray at any other time, it usually makes me very angry because my little brain just doesn’t know how to accept that we can pray any time. I’m sure there are other things like this that throw me off a bit, and I appreciate your patience, in understanding that I just don’t think exactly like most of my friends in this class.

Thanks for your patience and willingness to give me a fresh start. I’m hoping that by better understanding some of these little things about me, it might help you to feel more patient with me, and it might also give you ideas of things that can help set me up for success in your class!

Thanks,

Jonah