Thursday, May 24, 2012

Attachment to Time



One thing that Kristy has mentioned on many occasions is that our kids need to be attached to time.  It took me a long time to figure out what she was talking about but eventually I got it.  Our kids probably aren't going to have a strong attachment until they have an attachment to time.  They tend to be real floaty,  falling down over nothing, running into walls, not remembering when something happened....if it was yesterday, 5 minutes ago or 5 years ago.

Working on proprioceptive exercises is important to help the floaty, walking into walls stuff.  Building core muscles is really important because our kids really didn't get that in infancy.  They weren't bounced enough and held enough to develop the core muscles.  I've written more about that here.  Hooping helps, as does a bilibo.  Thanks Dia for turning me on to this.  Standing on a balance board.  Using a paddle board is really great if you can find one to rent and use in a lake.

For time attachment we go over the day's events with today's date, the order that each event that  happened during the day.

I woke up,
made my bed,
brushed my teeth,
brushed my hair,
hooped,
ate breakfast,
did the dishes
brain gyms,
tapped,
went to school,
worked on math,
recess,
language arts,
recess,
lunch,
etc.
all the way till bedtime

There was a time when this was a really frustrating exercise but in time it started getting better.  Then we added the events from the day before with the date and using "yesterday".  Enter more frustration.  Then it got better.  Then we added the day before that.  That one took a good bit of time.....and a good bit of frustration.  But we made it.

Now she can correctly state when things happened in this month, last month, last year, etc.  This is also really helpful for J to remember who caused the abuse in her life and that it was not me.  She doesn't confuse the times of the abuse now.  Huge!

That alone makes this exercise totally worth the initial frustration.

Attachment to time.....it's important.




7 comments:

The Accidental Mommy said...

Totally true! When Genea was younger she could not tell you what she ate 5 minutes ago. It didn't matter to her, she was worried about the next thing and the next....

Diana said...

Interesting. Makes total sense, though. I can so see this with my kids.

Allison said...

Thank you for this. We do the proprioception exercises and the core-strengthening things, but I hadn't considered the attachment to time issue--though we encounter it daily with all three of our children.

Jess said...

Thanks for this. I just stumbled upon your blog. I have 3 with attachment problems and sensory stuff going on too. We can't even finish one thing, before they're worrying about what's going to happen next...I think I may try doing this.
Jess @ www.letterstoabba.blogspot.com

matryoshka said...

Never thought of this...and it makes perfect sense. Definitely need to work on this.

matryoshka said...

addendum: Jupiter is sitting next to me on the floor (building with actual antique lincoln logs and bright pink duct tape) and we just had a conversation about this. She thinks Christmas was one or two years ago and April vacation was two months ago. And anytime I ask her what happened in school or what she ate for lunch, she doesn't remember.

Lindsay Mama to Nine said...

YES! Thank you...so something we need to work on. Love you!