As a father to 3 special needs boys, I learned a very long time ago that one of the very best ways to counter some of the behavioral challenges is by using redirection. Redirection doesn’t always work but it’s my go to approach when things start to go down hill. I wanted to share a video of me redirecting Emmett’s attention the other day. You may remember that I had Emmett to the pediatricians office recently because he has hit a second fever flare, immediately following a previous one. 

Emmett did not want to be at the doctors office and was doing everything he could to get out the door and run away, while we were waiting for the doctor to come in.

He got really upset and began to have a meltdown. I decided to try and redirect his attention away from the fact that he was somewhere he didn’t want to be. I tried reading him books or letting him play with my phone. Nothing worked and so I had to take a more aggressive approach. About halfway through I realized that I should record this because someone may benefit from watching how I distracted Emmett.

Redirection is really an art form because it’s not always easy to pull off and it can be exhausting, in-and-of-itself.

However, when you get a feel for how to effectively do this, it does get easier. You will learn the types of things that will capture your child’s attention away from what is upsetting them. It does however, take a bit or trial and error before finding something that will work, at least part of the time. In my opinion, this is one of those situations where the end justifies the means. It may take some work but I think anytime you can avoid a meltdown or your child feeling distressed, it’s well worth the effort.

In this video, you will not see the meltdown because I didn’t record anything until I was actually using the camera on my phone as part of the redirection.

[youtube width=”720″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INUjVyg-ECk[/youtube]