Professional Development
Teaching Activities for Families » Special Needs - The Elliott Family Story
Quiz Show “How to Solve Your Problems and Get Your Way” Script
Monty: Welcome to the newest game show in town, “How to get your way and solves your problems.” Today we have contestants who will compete for prizes – a new refrigerator, television, a trip to Disney World, a residential treatment facility, a set of adapted communication toys, and other prizes selected in advance by our wonderful staff of professionals who think they know exactly what these contestants want!
I should mention that in addition to my TV Host job, I am also a case manage for the Reaching County Department of Human Services. Please welcome the first contestant, Rick Elliott. (Applause) Rick, tell us how do you get your way and solve your problems?
Rick: I’ve never been on TV before, and I’m a little nervous. I’ve never won anything.
Monty: Don’t be nervous, Rick, just tell us all about yourself and talk slowly. You are very difficult to understand. Did anybody ever tell you that? Sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. Just start right in, and tell us how you get your way and solve your problems.
Rick: One of my best ways is to dump-and-replace professionals, especially socially workers and therapists who come to the house and don’t really help us with the problems we have managing the kids. I just call another agency and start the process over again. I feel like I’m shopping around for the right services for my kids too much of the time, but if, that’s what it takes, then I’ll do it. (Applause)
Monty: Good answer, Rick; I might have suspected as much! What’s another way?
Rick: I’m a letter-writer, a telephone and a note-taker. The house is littered with my notes to everyone, and especially I write down in my journal book what people say about us. They judge us and look down on us, because they think we are ignorant hicks. That way, if I have to stand up in court or go to the welfare, I have my facts straight. It has really helped me get what I want, more than once. (Applause)
Monty: Hey, we have a winner here, don’t we audience? Let’s give him one more turn!
Rick: I take off and go fishing! That is one way that always works. I can disappear with the best of them, and not come back for a day or two. Sometimes I have no choice, but to get away from the oldest boy, Mickey. It’s either that or have more fights. I definitely lose my temper with the kids, and the way I was raised was to get the book or the strap or both. I have no trouble with letting Mickey especially get either one or both, but my wife has fits, the other kids get into it, and so more often than not, Ijust take off.
Monty: Thank you for being such a, well, different, kind of contestant. Give him a hand, folds. And now, ladies and gents, amigos and amigas, welcome the second contestant, Mary Rose Elliott! Yes, another Elliott name, pulled right out of the fish bowl. What a coincidence!
Mary: Wow! It is so exciting to be here (gives the host a hug.) Yippee! Hi, kids and all you people out in TV land! Okay, now. How do I get my way and solve my problems? Easy question. I use my humor and my good looks to get what I want. Sometimes seduction works, too. Only kidding. See? I do have a great sense of humor, which you need to have in our house of “crazy daisies.” Seriously, I think playing with your kids is more important than cooking and housework, so I solve by problems by having a good time with the kids and letting them pretty much do what they want.
Monty: What a woman, we have here. She’s rather play than do housework! Good answer! Do you have another you could share with us?
Mary: Well, my side of the family is from Connecticut, not the mountains of Easter Kentucky, but I was raised the same as my husband, and hat is the way we want to raise our kids. I believe children should pretty much, raise themselves and entertain themselves, and that you should ignore a lot of what I see other parents freaking out about. Leave them be, I say. Ignoring is a good way to solve your problems, because the kids have to learn how to work things out by themselves. The oldest boy, though, hasn’t turned out so good, but I still think my way is the best way.
Monty: Only one more chance to give a winning answer, before the audience awards the prizes, Mary. What will it be?
Mary: Golly, I’d better give this extra thought. I need every one of those prizes for my kids. I don’t want anything for me and my husband. Hmmmmmmm. I go ti! I get sick, and I get a lot of attention for that. I have a lot of physical problems that lay me low a lot, but I have to be honest and say that since I was a kid, I used my asthma and childhood arthritis to get attention and get my way. It works better than crying for me. What about the rest of you ladies in the audience? You agree?
Monty: Okay, Mary, that’s enough. I’m the case manger. I mean, the host, remember? Thank you for appearing on the show tonight and if you’ll wait over there, the audience will make their decisions. Audience, give Mary a hand.
