Earthmovers and Sandcastles

How do you teach it? So far, I feel like nothing I’m doing is working with Sam. I praise him on the rare occasions that he tells the truth in hard situations, but most of the time, lately, he tries lying to cover his butt. It does not help that Gabe is in the stage where he’s experimenting with what’s real and what he wishes were real (”Sammy took my car from me!” when what he means is that he wants the car with which Sam’s been playing). Sam perceives that Gabe is “lying,” so even though we’re working with Gabe to recognize what the truth is, Sam thinks it’s fair game, I think.

I’ve been attempting to convey to him that lying makes everything worse; if he’s done something wrong, the consequences are more severe if he tries to cover it up with lies. Instead of helping, I think he’s coming to the conclusion that he needs to be a more convincing liar. And it’s not as though I can give blanket forgiveness when he tells the truth about something like shoving his brother or sneaking upstairs to watch TV after I’ve turned it off for the day. “Okay, okay, I did it,” with a roll of the eyes and the shoulders does not help me feel better, either.

I’m trying hard not to ask questions that promote lies, either, but he tends to use them even when the evidence is right in front of our faces, as I start to deal with him. “But I didn’t do it! Gabe did it! Well, I don’t know how it happened! Maybe you did it!” Argh!

Thoughts for strategies that might work better?

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