Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Rule of 3

Have you ever heard of the rule of 3.  Well maybe it's not 3, maybe it's just a general principle.  I think I first heard of this when I was watching American Pie (I know great movie).  For those of you that haven't seen it or don't know what I am talking about, here is the general principal.  Generally when you ask a man how many "partners" he has had, he typically multiplies the real number by 3 to give you the final answer.  When you ask a woman the same question she typically divides her real number by 3 to give you her final answer.  The reason I started to think about this is because I also think it pertains to some children's parents when asked about carry-over and homework.  However, it doesn't go male/female, instead it kind of goes spoiled children, not spoiled children. 

For example, you have Susie Q. who was referred by their doctor to get therapy, however, parents are not really sure they "agree" with the need.  They won't do their homework, but heaven forbid they actually tell that to the therapist.  Instead, every week when you ask how they did with therapy the take the # of times they really did their homework and multiply it by 3 maybe 4.  These parents put on a really GREAT show initially.  They say they are on board but after 6 months you are not seeing any progress.  However, you also get the parents that are truly on board and when you ask them how they are doing with their homework at home, and they always down play it.   (Typically they divide by 3.)  However, these are the kids that after 3 months they are ready for discharge and you can't really figure out why.  Then it dawns on you.  The parents that say, well we are not getting as much practice in as we should, are still doing more than double the practice the ones that say they are but really are not. 

Just goes to show you practice makes perfect.  It also gets you out of therapy quickly as well.

1 comment:

Ryan and Katie said...

Ha! I thought you were talking about how death comes in 3 and usually 3 people you know of die within close range of each other.