The Five Minute Experiment

Welcome to Day #2 of my blog!

Today my husband Jeff and I began an experiment with our middle son.  Since I am posting this blog to the general public, I guess I shouldn’t use his real name… so let’s go with Buster. That was his nickname when he was a baby, and even though he’s 25 now,  I still smile when I remember him as my little Buster.

So, here’s a quick background on li’l Buster. He has autism spectrum disorder, and of our three children, is the most impacted by his disability.   Since graduating from high school (where he spent 100% of his time in special education) Buster has been “baby-stepping” his way through college.  He recently earned an associates degree from Montgomery College and is now attending UMBC as an engineering major.  Buster began living on campus this year, which was a big change for all of us. Things have been going relatively smoothly, but not without some bumps in the road.

One of Buster’s difficulties is with time management. He is easily distracted and forgets to complete important tasks….  things like meeting with his adviser, registering for classes, or refilling his prescriptions. It would be much easier for us to do some of these things for him, but alas, if we have any hope of launching him into adulthood, he needs to learn to manage his own life.  Because Buster is still in the process of learning these skills, I have been meeting regularly with him on the weekends to review his calendar and discuss priorities for the coming week.  For those of you who have children like Buster, you won’t be surprised to hear that he is not very fond of our meetings. He thinks I am a big nag and he can’t understand why I would torture him with these long, boring, pointless meetings. Poor Buster! Often during these long, pointless meetings, we discover he hasn’t done any of the things he has agreed to do.  Nothing! Nada! Clearly this system hasn’t been working.

So, here’s our five minute experiment….

Jeff suggested we try a method he uses at work, called SCRUM. I am not going to explain it here because, quite honestly, I don’t understand most of it. But the bottom line is that Jeff has daily SCRUM meetings with his coworkers where they discuss (1) what they completed the day before, (2) what they are currently working on, and (3) any roadblocks they have encountered along the way.  These meetings are intended to be very short.

We presented the SCRUM idea to Buster.  It would mean daily meetings, but they would be very short. Since Buster is a big fan of short meetings, he said he would give it a try.  We agreed to call him every day at 10:25 am for a five minute “SCRUM” meeting. We started with a phone call this morning, and so far so good! Of course, this is just the beginning. We’ll see what happens over the next few months.

I am writing about this experiment so my followers (all three of you!) will hold us accountable, and perhaps we can find out together whether this method might be an effective strategy to use with our kids.  If it’s a big flop, perhaps my genius followers will help me come up with something better.  You guys are smart… I’m counting on you!