Will work for food

Keston has always been food-motivated. When we wanted him to learn to sign, we'd use food as the bait. If he wanted to eat something, he'd do basically anything!

Whenever food is involved, his understanding of instructions suddenly powers up and he miraculously does whatever he's told. Well, almost everything anyway.

In his vocally challenged state, and even with the fistful of words he knows...he rarely says stuff we want him to say. For eg, when he sees a bird fly past, he will always spontaneously call out BIRD BIRD. But if we were to point it out to him and ask him what is it, he'd only sometimes respond. If we were to ask him "Say Bird Bird", he'd refuse flat out.

But if he was waiting for some snack, he'd repeat everything we want him to say with no hesitation....
Say Bird
BIRD BIRD
Say Duck
DUCK DUCK
Say Mama
MAMAMAMA
Say Papa
PaPa
...etc.

Anyway, I digress. This post is not actually about him learning through food.

When K doesn't have school, it is fairly easy to get him to nap after lunch. We know that he's full and thus, ready to sleep.

But when K comes back from playschool after lunch, we're never sure of his hunger level. We're pretty sure he is not fed enough at lunch (yet he doesn't ask for more) cos he will ask for milk, which he doesn't usually drink after lunch. After the milk, he'd still look like he want more food and will have a bao or a slice of banana&nut bread. Sometimes I don't think he's hungry but he doesn't mind having more food. On most occassions he'd want to end it all with cheese. The problem is, he doesn't stop at 1 slice...he'd whine for a 2nd slice and then a 3rd!!

So we started cutting the slice of cheese in half and giving him in half pieces. Whenever he asks for another slice, I'll tell him to "Lie down, don't move" and I'll make the whole motion of going out to the kitchen to get him more. The reason I tell him not to move is cos my laptop is usually on the bed and he would end up pounding on it. However, whenever he's waiting for cheese or milk(at night), he wouldn't mess with my stuff. He'd lie there quietly waiting for me to come back. Last week I started not coming back!

I decided he didn't look hungry and so I just stood outside the ajar door and peeped at his feet, and I'd stretch abit and peep at his chest to see the breathing patterns. I had to be very careful not to look at his face cos he'd see me then! And sure enough, it took him less than 5 minutes to fall asleep!

I've done it almost everyday now and he falls asleep within 5 minutes without fail once I leave the room. If I'm in the room, he'd be dancing on the bed, jumping on me and all sorts of nonsense!!! Yesterday he woke up from his nap remembering that I didn't give him his cheese and asked me again. Seeing as he hadn't completed his requisite min 3 hrs nap, I told him I was gonna get it for him and just stood outside the door until he passed out again. haha! So terrible, but it works!