little problem, Big Problem, CATASTROPHE!

May 15, 2010 by Evelyn Kashinsky
Posted in•Social Thinking•A Parents View•How Big is the Problem?

The other day my son got into my car and declared “Today was the worst day ever!” 
“Why?”, I inquired.

“Because the teacher took away my plastic fork.  I wasn’t doing anything with it, she just decided to take it away!”, he wailed. ” She’s not fair.  Why is she so mean?”.

I decided that his reaction to this incident was way out of proportion.  This is common with people with social thinking problems.  To them everything is a big problem and they tend to over react that way.

To work on this, I handed my son a window marker and told him to write the numbers 1 through 10.  Then I explained that there were different kinds of problems.  We have little problems, big problems and catastrophes, and each requires a different reaction.

“So if our house burned down where would you put that?”, I asked.
“A ten?”, my son answered.
“Yup, I agree, it would be quite a catastrophe.  I would be really upset.  So how about if we went to Dunkin’ Donuts and your favorite donut wasn’t there.  Where would you put that on our scale?”
“A two.”
“Ok, yeah, it’s not really such a big problem. So the teacher taking your fork away, where would that be?”
“A three.” he answered.
“Right, so does the teacher taking away your fork make it the worst day in the whole entire world?”
“No”, said my son.

This has definitely helped him regulate his reaction to the inevitable problems that come up every day

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