Where Did Best Me Come From?

Now that I have one "follower" - thanks Amanda - I figure I better this really going. After Josie was diagnosed with Aspergers and we learned a lot about it, we realized we would have to teach her many of the things (social skills especially) that we had previously just figured she would catch on to over time.

What we didn't want is for Josie to get the idea that we wanted to change her or make her conform and be someone she just isn't. So we introduced the idea that learning skills just makes you the best you can be. Pretty abstract for a six year old, so I thought I would "brand" it. I have been interested in the power of branding in motivating learning for a couple of years now. (See my Writing Rocks activities at www.chipwithrow.com)

Together, Josie and I came up with the name "Best Me." I drew a little stick figure of a girl and wrote down our first goals on a white board. The brand evolved from there capitalzing on Josie's newfound desire to be "girly and hip." Her words. I repeatedly added the word friendly to those, trying to really solidify that association.

So that's kind of the basics of where we started. It's been such a tremdous success - with lots of other factors contributing as well. Josie really owns the words "Best Me" now and uses them independently to refer to anything she finds that can be used for self-improvement. Like "Mom, Tinkerbell (the movie) is kind of Best Me because she learns how to be happy with herself and make friends."