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caro458
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| Posted: May 20 2008 at 10:33am | IP Logged
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I'm a 27 year old special ed. teacher teaching a middle school boy with autism who is becoming signficantly more aggressive. He's about 5'8" around 230 pounds and solid muscle. I, on the other hand, am barely 130 pounds.
His running away, shoving, and threats of violence are becoming worse. He's VERY verbal- but can't seem to be reasoned with. Our school, unfortunately, is not equipped with space for cooling off and bean bags, pillow, etc. are not allowed due to fire code regulations. We are forced to empty out the classroom when he has a meltdown, leaving only me and a teacher assistant to stay with him until he regains his composure. Yesterday, it took almost an hour of instructional time away until he stopped trying to shove, yell, hit, etc. He earns points on a behavior system and earns his reward both at home and at school- very supportive parents!
Any advice for a struggling teacher?
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micki
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Location: United States
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| Posted: May 20 2008 at 12:46pm | IP Logged
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From the post it is hard to say what is going on - many asd kids become
more frustrated with increasing demands in school and many asd kids are
having a very hard time during the teenage years do to hormones.
I assume your school has been doing a functional behavior assessment
(FBA) and the behavior intevention plan (BIP) . If not that should be the
first step.
A point earning behavior system does not always work best for asd kids, I
just recently read an article that this often can have the opposite effect on
asd kids with them choosing to opt out instead. The 'pressure' of earning
points might just be too much for him.
When a kid is already melting down you indeed can't reason with him. He
needs to have instructions on how to recognise firsts signs of meltdowns
and an idea of several good choices he can make. That is something he
should have help working on while calm - kind of a firedrill of what to do
when he starts to loose it. My ds 's school is also very small with no real
quiet space but the teacher lets my ds take a time out in the coat closet
when he shows her a sign that he is starting to overstimulate. It has been
working for him.
There is an excellent paper on cycles of meltsdowns in asd kids that gives
several ideas on how to prevent them/work with them in the
schoolsetting. My ds's teachers have found it very helpful! I can't figure
out how to do links but please copy&paste
http://www.isec2005.org.uk/isec/abstracts/papers_m/myles_b.s html
Best of luck and I am always thrilled when teachers ask for input! Keep
coming.
Edit: When I tried the copy&paste it came up as 'moved'. Just google
isec the cycle of tantrums
and it should be first item on list. Sorry it is so complicated. Maybe
norwaymom can help out with he link, I'm just useles with that.
Edited by micki on May 20 2008 at 12:53pm
__________________
micki, mom to three wonderful and wild kids.
ds 10 asperger & anxiety
twin dds 6 quirky but NT this far
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teacherintx
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Joined: July 18 2007
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| Posted: May 20 2008 at 2:21pm | IP Logged
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As the previous poster said, it's important to figure out WHAT is causing
him to become escalated and upset. (An FBA should be able to determine
this). This would help you know how to avoid this situation or to remedy
it.
Having a visual of what to do when he's becoming upset is a great idea.
Another thing might be to have a card on his desk that says "Break" or
"Help Please" or "Water Fountain" - something that he can use to non-
verbally request a "time out" from the situation. Even though he is verbal,
he probably loses most of his verbal language during meltdowns, like a
lot of kids with autism do.
Something that helps in my classroom is to distract before the escalation
gets worse... as in, I will send the child to the restroom, or to go get the
stapler for me, or to run and check my mailbox. "Quick, quick! Hurry and
get the stapler." Sometimes this works because the child forgets about
what they were getting upset about (or I have time to remedy it real quick,
such as erase a wrong answer or get the red crayon that was missing).
A "choice board" of appropriate things to do is something we also use.
Have you ever heard of Green Choices and Red Choices? I use a variation
of this in my classroom. Basically, the child or teacher can create a
board/page that shows green (good) choices and red (bad) choices in
different situations. This can be to varying degrees of reading abilities
(visuals - photographs or line drawings up to written or typed words and
stick figures).
Sample
s of Red Choices Green Choices
You can also use a little tally mark system, red choices green choices, and
earn marks on either side. As the previous poster mentioned, the "stress"
of earning things can sometimes not work well for kids. Sometimes it can
be a good motivator, and if it is used in a way that the child is trying to
just do their best and not earn a certain amount in a defined period of
time, that helps too.
What about sensory items? Does the child have access to any sensory
items? Sometimes a stress ball (fancy that!) can do well in these types of
situations because it's something to get your anger out on that is not as
disruptive or dangerous. Silly putty is also good to have around, not just
for meltdowns but just to be squeezing throughout down times in class
and getting sensory input.
What about a visual schedule, or visuals to determine what's going on?
Maybe he is frustrated because he wants something else, or because he
doesn't know what's happening? You can use any array of visuals to help
the child know what comes next in his day. First we're going to work,
then we will go to lunch. Just a thought!
Another thing that I've found is awesome (the power of visuals!!!) is using
digital pictures of appropriate behaviors. Showing my students "Wow! I
am SO proud when you do your work like you are doing in THIS PICTURE."
or "Look how quiet the room is! Look how you're sitting so nicely in the
chair. That makes me happy when you sit like that."
Also, remember that I teach elementary school so you may have to modify
your language or visuals 
__________________
"We should not strive to change the child with autism to fit the learning environment; rather we need to change the learning environment to fit the learning characteristics of the child." (TEACCH)
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teacherintx
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My links never work! I even previewed it and it worked in the preview! Copy
and paste this link to see the samples of Green Choices and Red Choices:
http://www.redandgreenchoices.com/samplematerials.htm
__________________
"We should not strive to change the child with autism to fit the learning environment; rather we need to change the learning environment to fit the learning characteristics of the child." (TEACCH)
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ian23
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Joined: May 25 2008
Location: Philippines
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| Posted: May 27 2008 at 6:07pm | IP Logged
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caro458 wrote:
I'm a 27 year old special ed. teacher teaching a middle school boy with autism who is becoming signficantly more aggressive. He's about 5'8" around 230 pounds and solid muscle. I, on the other hand, am barely 130 pounds.
His running away, shoving, and threats of violence are becoming worse. He's VERY verbal- but can't seem to be reasoned with.
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that scares me
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tzoya
Postmaster General
Joined: December 19 2004
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| Posted: May 27 2008 at 6:24pm | IP Logged
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Can a trained aide be assigned to this boy? Not every child belongs in every environment. IF the school/placement he is currently in cannot be set up to manage his behaviors, he may need to be in a different environment -- for HIS sake if not for everyone else's. If the teachers cannot control him, they cannot teach him, so his IEP will be rendered moot. Of course, sheer size is not in and of itself dangerous. But if he is actually BEING aggressive, that must be stopped using a well-implemented BIP. If implementing an appropriate BIP in this particular sort of environment really cannot be done, then I'd consider recommending a more restrictive placement.
One note. My own son is 6'3.5" and 300 muscular pounds. Just STANDING there, he scares people. His size is not his fault. But it causes everyone to hold him to HIGHER behavioral standards than other kids. That's just the way things are. I mention this so that those who work with this boy can honestly think -- am I worried about him because he is actually aggressive or am I worried about him because I am concerned about what might happen, given his size, if he BECAME aggressive These are two different things.
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NorwayMom
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Joined: January 05 2007
Location: Norway
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| Posted: May 28 2008 at 12:59am | IP Logged
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Caro458 -
First off, WELCOME. I might have already said this under a
different topic, but I want to thank you for caring enough to seek out
information to help your student.
Here is my collection of meltdown resources, including the excellent
article Micki mentioned. I also want to draw your attention to
the free online videos in the collection.
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17134&am p;PN=1&TPN=1
Micki --
I switched web browser from Explorer to Firefox, and had to figure out
how to make links work (umm, actually my husband figured it out).
You can try what I do. Before the link, put in URL in brackets,
like this without the spaces [ U R L ] (I have to put in the spaces or
it will think my text here is a link. After the link, do the same
thing but with a slash first, like this without the spaces [ / U R L ]
teacherintx --
I liked the red choices, green choices site. She had some IEP
goals that I added to my "IEP goal resources" collection. We've
been talking about good choices and bad choices a lot here at our
house, and I find the focus on choices to be very effective. I
didn't think of calling them "red" and "green" choices, but it's a very
good idea, because it avoids inadvertently stigmatizing the child for
making a wrong choice ("I made a bad choice. I must be bad").
__________________
Norway Mom (mother of 2 sons who were born in 1998 and 2001. Both have atypical autism).
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Autism-PDD Message Boards : Autism Education Issues
Topic: aggression
