How does your engine run?

(LGT the Alert Program website)

So this is the question I will be asking my kiddies this week as we begin the Alert Program. I am very hopeful that this will work well for the initial clients in the appropriate age range- Lil Misters M and J, respectively, both 7-8 yrs old. Mr. J is probably close to ideal for this program- he has ADD that has (recently) become medicated and a history of problems in school. He has sensory issues and increased self-regulation has always been part of the treatment plan. He's very intelligent. I'm actually not aware of Mr. M's official diagnosis... he is not verbal, but has a communication device that he strongly dislikes to use. Sensory issues prevail and he has major regulating problems as well. I also have some questions about his overall intelligence... I know for a fact that he does not comprehend the differences in past/present/future.

Since I operate in an outpatient 1:1 setting, I will be compressing things a bit. The first session for both kids will be learning the engine vocabulary, us marking levels together, and an engine level handwriting worksheet (which I made this evening). If there's enough time, we'll make engine thermometers/speedometers and have a 'homework' sheet of identifying engine levels at home. It sounds a little ambitious now that I have it all written out, but that's the kind of plans I come up with. I've had to work hard to squelch thinking about running alert program groups in the summertime- I have a way of getting ahead of myself.

Hopefully this will all start out well. I've been putting a lot of extra time into learning things to use in my peds practice and it's been wearing me down a bit (that and the long unexpected hours, but that's another story). If anyone has worked with the Alert Program or general sensory regulation, please feel free to send some helpful tips. And if anyone wants a copy of the engine levels handwriting sheet, I'll gladly pass that along too.