What Is Your Take On It?

We have been concentrating on guided participation for awhile now. We are trying to get Alan to form an opinion on many things and to recognize that others may have a different point of view and that their point of view is ok as well as his own. That is, often there is no right way to think about things.

We have been asked to think of several ways in which Alan might have a different take on something than one of his parents does. These are supposed to be things in which he doesn't already have a huge emotional stake. The idea is that if he and we have several experiences in which taking different positions does not result in some kind of disaster, then he will more readily talk about and perhaps be ok with times when others have a different take than he does and he does have strong feelings about.

I am trying to think of different things we can make a video on. I am doing all right with finding snippets of times when I can point out to Alan that I have a different feeling about something than he does. Sometimes in the car when we are both listening to the same music, I can ask him if he likes it and if he does, and I don't, I can just make a declarative statement that I don't care for that particular song. He has a few on his iPod that he plays through the speakers of the car that I don't listen to. He mutes the speakers and listens by himself until that track is over. An example of this is "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." I have heard it so many times and find it so sad.

Now, though, for our consultant, we have to set up some situations where we do something, experience something, or make something together. Then we can talk about what we each like. Some things we will both like, some he will like and I won't, and some he will not like and I will. We could do this with Dad, also. If anyone reading has any suggestions for making such a video, please e-mail me. In the meantime, I'll be trying to figure out a scenario to record.