Last Thursday’s session, I spent the whole time with Ian, who came to us with a comic that he wanted me to read for him. I found myself summarising the story as we went through. This allowed me to give him the gist of the story while engaging him at the same time. He asked lots of questions of specific vocabulary and to help him understand, I would use examples that he understood. I only knew to use these examples because of the past sessions and time we spent together. Over time, I have learned how he thinks and what some of his passions are. I learned that he really understands and enjoys any type of superhero story even if they only involve a protagonist and antagonist. With this, I was able to help Ian understand the story by giving simplified explanations and examples using a hero and a villain. For example, if the word he wasn’t sure of was “reporter”, I could use explain the word to him using characters in comics even if they were not involved in the comic we were reading.
There were also small and simple activities that were in the book which I thought Ian would really enjoy. I started by spending lots of time on these small activities like mazes and crosswords. He clearly understood these as he was able to complete the activities by himself. However, he grew bored of these and often asked me to skip and get back to the story. I learned that he probably doesn’t like activities that aren’t engaging or repetitive. This is why he is often not coloring but wanting to have a conversation. With this, I think next time I should try and do something different with him, like physical activities or making music.
