Character Traits

Helpful. Honest. Brave. Kind. Funny. Wise.

These were the character traits for Picasso’s assignment. He was to complete 2 sentences which said, “I am _____ because I _____.” He needed to choose one of those character traits for the first blank and then give a reason why for the second blank. The third sentence said, “Here is a picture of me being _____.” Fill in the blank & draw a picture.

I could immediately think of so many possible outcomes for this assignment and thought it would be a lot of fun for him!

For example:

I am helpful because I put away my own laundry. Or -

I am honest because I can tell the truth. Or -

I am brave because I can go upstairs by myself now. Or -

I am kind because I help my sister clean up her room sometimes. Or -

I am funny because I tell great jokes. Or -

I am wise because I know a lot of things.

In my excitement at how fun I thought this assignment might be for him, I forgot that, at the core, this is a multi-step task:

*Understand the assignment

*Focus on Sentence #1

*Choose a word from word bank for first blank

{And this is where it fell apart. Why? Because he struggles to understand emotions. He struggles to understand how to express emotions AND to understand how he feels in any type of emotional situation. He struggles to understand (let alone describe) himself in terms of “traits” of any type - emotional, physical, character, or otherwise.}

*Come up with a reason to go along with the word he chose for the first blank (and write it, which involves thinking through the words, organizing the words, then attempting to spell them) - but not just “choose” a reason; rather, think through all sorts of things he’s done in life and try to match something he’s done with one of these traits

*Continue to sentence #2

*Choose new word from word bank for first blank

*Choose new reason for second blank (and write it, organizing words and then spelling them)

*Choose a word for the third sentence

*Sort through things he’s done in life to match an appropriate activity with that word

*Draw a picture (to his own liking…there was a lot of erasing)

He tried to choose “helpful” twice. For sentence two, he tried to add the word “also” before the first blank so that he wouldn’t have to think of other traits and reasons - he had a good thing going on with “helpful” and wanted to continue on that track.

We spent nearly 10 minutes just choosing the reason to go with “helpful” in the first sentence. He really struggled with this and had a tough time coming up with answers. I tried to encourage as we went along, reminding him that I think all of these things about him, for so many reasons. But that just doesn’t help when he’s in a mood and is struggling with SUCH a multi-step problem. To so many others, this is a simple exercise. I want to reach the point where three sentences is a simple exercise for him. Let me clarify that - I want to get to the point when this type of exercise is easy for him. He can write three sentences with no trouble. Do they always go together? Not perfectly, but then we can edit or plan to clarify for the next time. But he can do it.

But to choose character traits about himself and give a reason why he feels he’s that way, and be able to do it with ease - not there yet. Yet.

This took nearly 45 minutes. And almost all my patience to not just *give* him some answers. (Pardon my not-so-great editing out of his name at the top.)