LOVE AND LOGIC TIP
"Does Love and Logic work with kids who have special needs?"
My answer to this immensely broad and complicated query typically has two parts.
Yes! Love and Logic works in a wide variety of situations with many types of kids… and adults… because the primary focus is on helping
the user
remain healthy.
The healthier we remain, the healthier our children and students will become. All kids need positive and calm role models.
The second part of my answer deals with this fact:
Great parents and educators are great scientists.
Successful people use the following steps to determine what will work best with each special child:
1. Make an educated guess (i.e., "develop a hypothesis").
Based on their intuition about what might work best, they begin by experimenting with
just one
Love and Logic skill. To repeat, they start with implementing JUST ONE SKILL. Perhaps they start with staying calm and repeating, "I love you too much to argue" when their child begins to argue or starts a meltdown.
2. Observe how things go (i.e., "collect data").
As they observe, wise parents and educators remember that things will often look worse when they begin to use an effective skill. Oftentimes, there is a limited period of greater acting out as kids begin to get used to our new style. Please give this observation period at least a week or two to evaluate the effectiveness of this skill.
3. Evaluate the results (i.e., "analyze the data").
Let's say that a parent notices an interesting trend in the data: Her child, who is on the autism spectrum, responds better when she whispers, "I love you too much to argue," than when she says it just slightly louder.
Maybe another parent with a child on the autism spectrum sees that his child responds better when he says no words at all.
Maybe another parent with a child on the same spectrum sees that this technique doesn't work at all.
4. Implement the skill, modify it a bit, or go back to step one.
I humbly submit that no one knows for sure what will work with each unique child with special needs… without running plenty of small and safe experiments.
All in all, Love and Logic has a great track record of working with all kids with special needs. Why?
Because they need lots of loving patience just like the rest of us.
-Dr. Charles Fay
