MEET CHARLIE OUR GUINEA PIG

As many of you know, having a child with ADHD or working memory issues creates a challenge when trying to get them to take responsibility for multi-instruction tasks. We have had a difficult time getting our son to be independent and to take on responsibility. Some of this is probably our fault. He works so hard with his learning disabilities and ADD that we probably baby him too much otherwise. However, he was begging – BEGGING for a guinea pig. Even though we really did not have ANY desire to have another pet in the house (we have a Havanese dog and a Beta fish), we decided to use the opportunity to teach responsibility and to increase his independence.

At the pet store, we made a very hard deal with my son. He had to take responsibility for caring for the guinea pig with my help. If he did not, then we were going to give the guinea pig away and he was going to have to pay us back for the cost out of his allowance. We emphasized the deal several times and made him repeat it back to us several times before we even bought the guinea pig. So we bought the guinea pig and named him Charlie.

Charlie is very funny and makes all sorts of noises that make us stop in our tracks! He loves to be held, loves to beg for food and enjoys playing both inside and outside in a play area that we bought for him.

The very first Saturday, when it was time to clean out Charlie’s cage, we did get push back from Griffin. I spoke with him to make sure he wasn’t scared or anxious about the task. He was refusing to take care of the cage. So we said that we were going to have to start asking around to see who wanted Charlie and walked away. Sure enough, Griff came into the kitchen to work with me on cleaning up the cage.

We decided to take pictures of Griff taking care of Charlie for two reasons. We wanted to give Griff the opportunity to share his story of responsibility with his class. Since his teacher is deathly afraid of anything rodent like, we decided to make a poster which he is going to share with his class. Second, we use the visual poster as support for Griff when it is time to take care of Charlie. It reminds him of what tasks he needs to do and it is a system that he can use independently without asking for help.

RINSE OUT THE BOTTOM OF THE CAGE WITH HOT SOAPY WATER.

PUT IN FRESH BEDDING.

PUT IN FRESH FOOD.

Visual reminders are a strong means of support for any type of task both at home and within the classroom. It gives a visual reminder and checklist yet is something the child can access independently. You can use any type of pictures when putting together a visual checklist but I find that Griff loves pictures that feature him!!

Griff has been afraid or reluctant in the past to take on tasks on his own. We are finding, however, that with visual checklists, his confidence is growing and that he actually enjoys some of the independent responsibilities he has taken on.

Now if I could only get Charlie to slow down on the pooping ….

THE COMPLETE VISUAL CHECKLIST.