This Is Love Bug

Love Bug is not liking school. He had a pretty bad day last week, which prompted a call from the teacher. She asked what I do to help him. Lady, if I knew what to do, you don’t think I’d be informing everyone and their mother? I did write her a list of things about Love Bug in a notebook. Maybe it wasn't enough? I was trying to keep it simple, just as an introduction to my little guy, not a comprehensive volume. I meant it for us to pass back and forth. She sent it home a few times and now kept it. Unless Love Bug lost it. But, here is the list I wrote to her for the first day of school.

 

This is Love Bug

 

Love Bug’s Strengths:

Love Bug is very smart at figuring out how things work. He is chatty, friendly, and fairly out-going. Love Bug is a hugger! His nickname at home is Love Bug. He is getting better at using his words to ask for what he wants. His favorite things are trains and he can turn any object into a train or train tracks. Love Bug is full of energy and when he wants to learn something, he can be very engaged. He asks a lot of questions, sometimes about things you hadn’t ever considered.  Love Bug is funny and has a great sense of humor.  He has a terrific memory.

 

Love Bug’s likes and dislikes:

Love Bug likes physical touch and is still learning how to ask for it appropriately. He likes holding hands and feeling skin-to-skin by rubbing his hands over someone’s arms. He will climb onto the lap of a trusted adult, forgetting to ask first. As mentioned above, Love Bug loves trains. He is not fond of arts and crafts and refuses to write letters or numbers. He hates cheese (he will tell people he is allergic, but he is not) and loves chips. He likes when someone reads to him, but sometimes gets distracted by questions he asks. He does not like waiting.

 

Love Bug’s triggers:

Love Bug gets triggered when he is not allowed to be first in line. He sometimes still struggles with transitions, but does better with timed prompts (5 minutes left, 10 minutes left, etc.) and being told ahead of time “you have x number of minutes to do this activity.” Often times not getting what he wants causes Love Bug to react negatively. I try to focus on what he can do (no, we cannot go outside, but we can play xyz game, something like that). He likes to help, so sometimes that can distract him from being upset about not getting his way (we can’t go outside, but can you help me put the blocks away). Being silly with him is also a way to distract him (funny voices, telling a silly joke, and he loves being tickled). When he is getting agitated, he will stick the pointer finger of his left hand in his mouth.

 

Safety issues:

When Love Bug gets really worked up, he does try to elope. A lot of it is posturing and getting you to chase him, but he does sometimes just run without thinking. He also sometimes throws things when he is escalated.  

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