Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Highlight of the Day: 10/18/2011
Since I wrote my last Highlight of the Day, the student I am working with has (for a lack of a better phrase) shown me the other side of his personality. At multiple points during a given day, he will swear, insult me, and utter some of the most outlandish and shocking vulgarities I have ever heard (and I don't shock easy). Although less frequent, he has also shown my violent behavior ranging from kicking and pound walls, to kicking tables, to once even kicking me. While he has never outright refused to do any school work for me, there is only so much work that is completed during the day. He does have moments where he is calm, polite, fairly rational, and even remorseful for when he does behave badly. But, having said that, the behavior I saw the first day I worked with him was not same I have seen since. While everyday brings at least one great challenge, I can say with complete sincerity that I am still happy to be working with this young man, and will do everything I can to be a good teacher to him. Especially given the fact that, so far, I am the one that is doing any teaching with him throughout the day.
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4 comments:
I know it's not your place but wondered if parents have seriously attempted diet and nutrition interventions. Makes all the difference in our kiddo.
I know some parents try that. As far as this kid is concerned, I don't know what the parents have done regarding diet. And honestly, I don't think it would make much of a difference with this young man given the serious psychological problems this young man has. But I do appreciate the suggestion, and I'm glad nutrition interventions have worked for your child.
I know it's not widely accepted in most behaviorist training (strict ABA'ers) but keep open to any sensory processing disorders.
I see that not only in my son but in other kids he has been around, myself and even others. Most people learn to cope with them. My son in particular does not do well in flourescent lighting environments. Other more verbal kids have told me the humming of the ballasts disturb/distract them. If I listen I can hear them too. I have learned to down it out but to them it can be like someone running their nails on the chalkboard.
I myself sometimes have issues with odors, lights and sounds. Again I have learned to cope but there are times when one or several can be so overwhelming I go into a "fight or flight mode".
I am not trying to get you in trouble with staff or Sped Dir but sensory issues can be written into IEPs. It may become incredibly important to that child now or later when trying to understand the nature of behavior response. I do not recall specifically how we got that evaluated. I beleive it was a gal from KU (who has sinced moved to NC) who had her PhD in Sensory Integration - Katie Stephens.
Our son has several beaviors we ID'd from early childhood. I won't publically go into details but what was cute at 4-5 years old may be misconstrued as sexual behavior if he is acting upon those sensory issue(s) as a teenager. That can inappropriately get him kicked out of school where his other possible choice would be a state school.
Just something to think about.
I'm glad you have shared you story. I know that sensory issues often plays an important role in special ed. students, especially those with autism.
As far as getting things written into his IEP, sadly, I am only para at the moment. Although, for this student, I have basically taken on the role of teacher, and I sometimes feel like I'm his case manager (even though I'm not).
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