Contract work

Riley has a job this afternoon. This opportunity really came about because I need to bring him to Framingham this evening because he has an appointment in Framingham at 7:20 to see about the limp. We will know later tonight if this will be anything serious.

Since I doesn't make sense for me to already be in Natick at 5:30 and go home to only go back to Framingham (especially not with these gas prices), I will stop home to pick Riley up earlier in the afternoon and take him with me to Natick. After the Consortium, I typically drive to Natick three days a week to work for a private practice, run by Emerson Alums. It is great contract work and I love the change in population.

Riley will wait for me in the car for most of the afternoon, but we have plans to have him join the Social Pragmatics group to work with the kids. There will be two boys and three girls. All the children in this group have difficulty in social situations. Either they are diagnosed with PDD, Autism, Sensory Processing disorder, or language disorder. Riley typically is not a good candidate for working with children, but for this job, his apprehensiveness with children will help these children learn to control the "engine" in their bodies. The calmer they, are, the more relaxed and playful Riley will be. By looking at Riley's body language, they will need to adjust their own body language to show him they are calm. Riley is highly sensitive to eye gaze, personal space, and tone of voice. These children all have difficulty modulating their body to be socially appropriate.

And after work, Riley and I will enjoy the reward of running around Cochituate State Park until his appointment. Yay!