Three Candy Speed
Posted: April 16, 2008You are rushing to get yourself and your child ready for dentist appointment. You called out from your room or kitchen to instruct him to pick up his toys and end his activities. However, the bou is strangely moving slower and slower than you expected. You called out again. This whole episode seems to transformed into a slow motion dram. Your child’s limbs seems attaches to an invisible stretchy web, pulling against him as he reaches for his cap.
What’s happening here ? Clearly, he sees you rush to get out of the house. You prompt him, reminding him. You find yourself rambling on with insignificant , energy draining adult reasoning until you are ready to scream. How can you get him to pick up the pace without sounding like a slave master ?
The problem is your child does not know what ” fast” looks like. Three candy speed is a way to show him what accelerated movement is.
Put three little candies on the table and call your child over. Tell him you are going to set the timer and that he may begin cleaning up when you do so. Inform him that if the toys are picked up and neatly put away, these candies will be his reward.
At this point, his energy is full alert and he takes his mark. The child moves faster than yoiu ever seen, beating his timer. This is his three candy speed. You have just established in concrete form a time benchmark that becomes a future reference point.
As the child consume his candy, sit him down and explain to him that the speed he just moved is called three candy speed. He will not get candy everytime. In fact, this is the only time he will get candy for moving fast. Tell him you just wanted him to feel himself going fast so that later, when youneed him to move quickly, you can just tell him to go at three candy speed, and he will know what that feels like.
