Glad to hear it.
Um. Hothouse is a slang verb we use here meaning....pull out all the mon tricks to make learning one particular activity fun. Typing in this situation. Sometimes it is rapid math facts to prove to the school that more math is needed.
The first step in hothousing is to figure out what is reinforcing to the child by removing assumptions and really observing. The number 1 reinforcer is often special time with mon or dad. Special time is any time with just the 2 of you where no intrusions or distractions of the parent are allowed. Then the idea is to let the child choose the agenda and make a sincere effort to delight in the child.
Once you've done that a few times you will become an even higher value reinforcer plus you will have better chances to know what else is reinforcing for the child. I wouldn't have the child earn special time minutes but I would take some of the aspects that you learned about in special time and build them into hothousing.
Another novel reinforcer is 'doing what older kids do.' So if there is an older sibling or cousin or neighbor who doesn't know how to type then set out to teach that other kid and insist that your target child is just too young but promise that you'll teach them when they are older. If you have no older child availible then you can substitute yourself sometimes.
If you have more of a 'I say jump you sat how high' relationship with your child then just set a time of day and announce that there will be 5 minutes of practice of whatever typing program you have daily at 4pm. At age 8 you aren't likely to see results for many months so this is a great time to demonstrate that some skills require repitition and many months of building up muscle memory. This is a very useful lession for most gifted kids.
So that's my crash course on hothousing.
Love and more love
Grinity
Last edited by Grinity; 04/10/11 04:02 AM.
