Micro Manage

What to do, not how to please. Someone looking over my shoulder is creepy. Achieve B, start at A. Big picture, details come later. Words and numbers are Charlie Brown’s teacher, I need pictures. Mumble, mumble, mumble, I can recite it back. Means nothing. I don’t think of it as a deficit, maybe because I know what works for me. I use it to bring home the point. A child that runs into the road everyday, and everyday they have to come in for running into the road. Draw a road, get a toy car and have a grape as representation of the child. Roll the grape onto the road and squish the grape with the car. Child no longer goes on the road. Just saying that words go in and mean nothing to some.

I let things happen, then follow up. I know for myself that being told very specifically how to do something makes my skin prickle. Presentations that are read to me, when it is right there for me to read, chills. I also know that some people need that. When I get instructions, in writing please, I read one sentence at a time, step by step. Hubby reads nothing and can just do it, gasp! Parent teacher appointments I was always told that assignments weren’t completed after several prompts to complete them. I would always ask to see the assignment.. If it isn’t written down, it doesn’t exist, there is nothing to recall. My favourite assignments were the ones with choices. Teach your classmates how to….use a cartoon, play, diagram, short story, model. The best projects ever!

Modelling an action is huge, written words are huge, checklists all great tools. Words are just puffs of smoke that go in and are gone in a few seconds. Show someone how to do something and walk away. Come back, compliment the attempt. One instruction at a time if it is verbal. If you give instructions and there is no attempt, show an example and go away. I worked in a factory as a teen. Lots of words, messed up orders but good boss. Then the boss changed, stand over you, show you nothing, critiquing every move, stand outside the bathroom with a timer! Nope never went back. No value, no respect. We do our best, when we are allowed to make mistakes and get feedback that lets us feel our worth.