The Importance Of Stickers

Posted by Vulnadia on Sep 08, 2010 at 11:51 PM My kids have been sticker fanatics for years, actually. I use them for potty prizes, making them quite the hot & coveted commodity. They will voluntarily walk by themselves to the lab at the Doctor's office just so they can get their stickers and band-aids which rate right up there with stickers actually...yes they let them poke them just to get the darn things & they do it stoically at that! Fast forward to school, and of course teacher uses stickers as treats for being good, and learning tools too. You have to understand, that for Kaiden, school is not easy. It's not the work that's the problem, it's the total environment coupled with his sensory problems that he was born with. This makes even the most mundane of tasks very difficult for him (think "What About Bob" and the babysteps to do everything for example.) He not only gets claustrophobic in small areas filled with people, but he cannot handle excess noise and tends to shut down in these sorts of situations. He doesn't WANT to do it, he just does it naturally and cannot help it, making it exceedingly difficult for him. He really tries soo hard and genuinely wants to do good for his teachers, too. He LOVES trying new things, but sometimes communication and sensory overload get the best of him and he cries or has a tantrum. Teacher has been GREAT at learning all about Kaiden and things that upset him, what works and what doesn't work etc. So, when Kaiden is good and gets rewarded for doing something or mastering something at school, he tends to covet those hard-earned prizes more than most would. Yesterday, he earned a sticker during group time with the letter N on it and he was sporting it proudly when he got into the mommievan after school. It was there as we rode over the big BIG bridge (the one over WATER...red water) and it was there while he had his snack. It was there when he got out of the mommievan to take his bag inside, but when he stopped to toss his snack bag in the big BIG trashcan, it suddenly disapeared. He and Vivienne looked EVERYWHERE tiny 4yr olds can possibly look for it, including under the mommievan, but they could not find it. The most awful thing had happened: It had worn down its stickiness and had fallen off into the trashbin when he tossed his trash. This SERIOUSLY upset him...I tried to reach down into the trashbin and fetch it, but alas it was trash day and empty save for a few leaves and some bits of standing water in the very bottom. It had started to sprinkle, so I took everyone inside to stay dry. Kaiden tried really hard not to cry, but it finally got the best of him when he realized it had started pouring out and that it most likely was all melted into nothing...his hard earned sticker was GONE... He cried inconsolably for almost an hour...then it was time to go and pick up big brother from fencing team practice. He tried to stop, really he did, but he had worked soo hard for that sticker and had been soo proud of being good and not having any outbursts...it just made him soo very sad he couldn't do anything BUT cry... He was okay...sort of...on the ride to high school until we passed a trash truck and he lost it again because he just KNEW that they would pick up the trash with his sticker in it...he finally calmed down a little after he found out that the trash had already ran that morning and his sticker would still be in the bottom of the bin when we got home...even if I was too short to reach in and fetch it for him! He had heart, and the hope that Daddy would be able to reach it kept him from bawling outright, but a few tears escaped here and there in spite of himself. When we got home, it was storming again, this time soo hard that Kian even refused to wear his hat inside lest it melt in the rain...so he cried really hard again... But this time, Daddy was home, and Daddy is tall enough to reach the bottom of the trash bin...which he did because his Kai was soo very sad over that lost sticker! We managed to dry it out and tape it into place on the back of his hand and he was finally fine. That hard earned sticker is now in the wardrobe stuck fast on the bin where Kai can see it every morning and it can't get wet or melt anymore! It's amazing how something soo simple as a tiny piece of paper with a bit of sticky on the back can mean soo much to a little person!