True Love

Mikey has quite the love affair with the couch.  He uses it for napping, TV watching, iPad playing, dog petting and just general goofing around. In fact, he has flung himself onto one of our loveseats so many times that the bottom of it probably sits on the floor.  At this point, it may be held together by the slipcovers.

For years, he preferred to fall asleep on the couch while watching TV. One he was out, we would just walk him up to his bed.

I worked hard to end this habit because it commanded the TV during our family TV time and I wanted Mikey to learn to fall asleep in his own bed. We got there eventually. More recently, we’ve put a TV in Mikey’s room and he falls asleep with his favorite shows in his own bed.

My Thinking

For a long time, I held off on putting a TV in Mikey’s room because I wanted him to associate his room with sleeping time – and only sleeping time. But, as we started to look ahead to Mikey living in a community for adults with special needs, I wanted him to get used to having a TV in his room so that he could always have access to the shows he wanted to watch.

We’re teaching him to use his remote independently so he will be able to do it on his own in his adult community.