Describe an incident of working with a special child in your
classroom.What advice/guidance
did you receive from your teacher or another school professional?
One student who I have spent a good deal of time with is “Arnold”. He is an inclusion student with ADHD and is emotionally not where his fellow sec on graders are. Almost every day, Arnold will be upset at not playing what he wants at recess, playing what he wants but not winning, not kicking the ball far enough, missing a read-a-loud, not being first in line, or being first in line. Without a large amount of teacher attention, Arnold will continually wander and do his own thing - look out a window, browse books, chat about random topics with others. He even has difficulty sitting for short morning meetings. With a teacher by his side, Arnold has little difficulty in accomplishing his work and often makes observations that other students had missed.
I am lucky to have the thoughts, opinions, and guidance of two practitioners. Each have given me insights into working with Arnold. Depending on the situation, he needs differing reassurances.
* In the classroom, Arnold likes to have the support of a teacher nearby. Often though, with too many students around him he will be distracted by conversations. In these instances we find a special spot for Arnold to work. The spot should be presented as something special and not as punishment. Once in a new seat, Arnold will work quickly and perform well. * When he is in a setting for large group instruction or morning meetings, if he is exhibiting too much energy and too little focus, he has some tools to help him settle. He has a small lap pillow and a small blanket. The lap pillow is weighted and helps him stay seated. The blanket he can hold and play with to help ensure that his nervous energy is centered. He has also taken to being my buddy at morning meetings and the starts of reading workshop. He will sit in a chair next to me as opposed to on the floor with his classmates. His fellow students know that these small accommodations are to help him and they are his tools to help him learn. There is never any, “Why does Arnold get X, Y, or Z?” * The playground can be a different beast. Most days Arnold leaves recess to enter lunch and he is crying. Every day could be for a different reason. As I am the one who brings all forty-three students to lunch and gets them seated, and then in line for their lunch, and keeps them behaved all during, it can be difficult to have one student who needs so much emotional support. But I do it. It has always been advised to be as patient and supportive as possible. To be encouraging but also to explain things to show Arnold the truth. Be fair. I often find myself calming Arnold down for the first few minutes of lunch until he is ready to get in line to receive his meal.
Overall, there are many facets to working with Arnold. And since he has difficulty in varying settings, I must be prepared for anything. My teachers have always said that it is best to be patient and supportive of him. Using the tools as necessary and encourage him to be part of the group is extremely important. I feel as though that each day and each experience has helped me in supporting Arnold in his educational and emotional growth.
I always worry when giving students in class accommodations that other students will want it, not feel it's fair, or become distracted. It seems like your class has it working well, though. I wonder how these tools were introduced, and if they were explained to other students, or if they were seamlessly integrated in.
There are two students in my classroom who have accommodations that allow them to sit in a chair outside the circle when the class is seated on the rug. This is purportedly to help them actively participate, yet diminish the number of distractions to themselves and to others that happen when they sit on the floor with their peers. These students seem to have difficulty sitting still for any period of time, and will speak out of turn more often than other students. They also tend to fidget and invade upon other students personal space without realizing they are doing so.
These students are allowed to sit on balance mats and to play with thera-putty in order to help them focus their energy and stay seated. This does not work consistently. I think it works best when the meetings are short, and the students are not hungry, tired, or feeling emotionally distressed.
I think both these students feel left out of group meetings. Their classmates seem to understand that they aren't getting special treatment, but I am not sure the students themselves understand why they are sitting outside the group. I could be projecting, but I fear that in a way, the physical placement of being outside the group seems to enhance their sense of social isolation. On more than one occasion when they fidgeted or were disruptive in their chairs, my teacher has asked them to sit in a break chair, or leave the room. I'm not sure that is helpful, but I realize that as a teacher it is frustrating to be doing everything according to plan, but still be facing significant interruptions from students.
Even in their accommodation chairs, these students have difficulty. There have been times when they end up lying on the floor or crawling under furniture. One time one of these students was crawling around talking to himself and saying "why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? I'm so stupid". It was obvious to me that he was very conflicted internally because he was aware that he was out of control with his body, but did not have the self control to fix it. Normally this child would be told to leave the room and sit doing nothing in a chair in the hallway. The theraputty is his only calming tool, as anything else could be perceived as a reward for the child and exacerbate his behavior. But in this case I redirected the child to drawing. I had him sit at a table near the group, and I gave him a pencil and a piece of paper and the shape stencils I know he likes. He immediately calmed down, and sat through the rest of the meeting without fidgeting or making excessive noises. I'd be suspicious about whether or not he was paying attention to the meeting, but I believe he was because he participated a couple times. He was calling out instead of raising his hand, but at least through calling out, I was able to assess that he was following the conversation and responding to the relevant topic. I don't think he felt he was being rewarded by being allowed to draw. I think he felt like he could calm down because he had the tools to be in control and no longer was embarrassed to be out of the group and caught up in his internal struggle.
It hurts to see many students feeling helpless to help themselves. I know it takes time for students to learn self control. I know that a room of students without self control is not conducive to learning. I don't know all the answers for how one or two teachers in a classroom of great need are supposed to be able to give each child all the support they need to feel successful. I guess it's a lot of trial and error, relying on advice from the behavior specialists, and trying to maintain consistency while also being flexible. It is important to try to do as little harm as possible to any individual while trying to help everyone as a group.
I feel that, for some students, self control needs to be explicitly taught. Also, you talk about how the student needs something to calm him down and help reduce his anxiety. I attended a workshop on behavior management once, tailored more for after school programs, and one idea that I took away was a fidget basket. There are some things, like squishy balls or animals, that students can hold while listening. It's hard to imagine how to implement that with 22 students, but it's something to consider. Also, I think it's great how you were able to get the student to sit, draw, calm down, and even participate in the conversation. Giving the tools to certain students to help them calm down is a huge deal, and something that I feel we don't learn in graduate school, nor is the focus of any professional development.
I worked as a Special Ed Para with a student in 1st grade who had high functioning autism. I worked 1:1 with him from October to January of this school year. He excelled in Math and was reading at a 2nd grade level. Reading the words was easy although the comprehension piece was weak for him. His routines were important to him and his visual icons helped him keep on track comfortably through out his day. His recess was the same everyday. He would swing on the swing holding his head back towards the sunshine and close his eyes and smile- Back and forth, back and forth he would swing for the entire time if I'd let him. After the bell rang, we would walk back to the class passing the main doors of the school to Door #17 which was right beside his 1st grade classroom. This Door #17 was his constant routine everyday and he would remind me everyday! On this particular day, he became distracted with a much loved teacher he saw at the Main Doors of the school. He galloped up to her, as she opened the door and proceeded on saying Hi to her about 5 times in a row. I went along with his lead and temporarily forgot about Door #17 in regards to his everyday routine. When I realized about the "forgotten Door #17" we both were walking into his classroom and then it was too late. As soon as he walked in, he had a blank look on his face as if he knew exactly what had happened. He fell to the floor and had a complete melt-down while his teacher and I tried to comfort him and explain. After he was feeling better, I bumped into his speech therapist specialist in the hall and relayed the entire incident of Door #17. She then explained that consistency/routine was the key, but if there needed to be a change it had to be done it was all in the visual and verbal ques at least 15 minutes in advance. She reminded me that it was not my fault in following his lead and that he chose to break his routine even though it wasn't conscious on his part. She helped me feel better about the incident and the experience was a invaluable.
It's such a tough call when you know the student needs the routine, but they are the one that breaks the routine. You want to follow their lead, and it's sometimes so hard to know if they are consciously deciding to change the routine or will have a meltdown over it, like your student did. Yet, in the moment, you certainly did the right thing. Should you have told him not to go see a favorite teacher? Should you have told the teacher he couldn't go in that door, but needed to go into Door #17? Yet learning to work with a student during such a moment is a huge learning experience, no matter how long you've been working in education. I'm glad you had the speech therapist there to talk about it with, and help you process.
There is a student in my class who has difficultly with his impulsivity, and manifests his anxiety by chewing on things. All of our pencils are chewed on, and some of the large erasers. His peers are also aware of it, and do not like it. I cannot blame them. We talk about how we don’t put our fingers in our noses because it spreads germs, and spit is the same. The other students don’t tease him about it, but I worry that there are social ramifications. This is tough for a kid that has a hard time being nice to peers as it is.
Periodically, the student will come in with something that looks like a toy, but explains that it’s for him to chew on. One time, he wore a plastic, coiled necklace that stretched. He then proceeded to chew on it, and then play with it so that it sprayed his spit everywhere. That did not work. He also has come in with gum, but swallows it halfway through the morning. And it’s difficult to let him have gum, when the classroom rule is no gum. His parents mentioned some other chew items, but we have yet to see them materialize.
One thing that has worked is feeding him. He eats and eats, and always seems hungry, and is a skinny kid. We have parents bring in snack, so we often have extra baby carrots. He eats baby carrots by the handful.
Other than feeding him, nothing seems to help the chewing. I’m not sure what else to do, and the special education teacher isn’t sure as well. She has a good relationship with him. I don’t believe she has the same problem, but she pulls him for one-on-one help for 30 minutes at a time. Points of high stress outside of school make the problem worse, and it’s hard to predict when they will come. I remind him to keep things out of his mouth, and depending on his mood, that helps.
My daughter, who is in 1st grade, reported to me recently that a student in her class was chewing pencils, that the rest of the class was bothered by it, and that he did not stop when asked. She said that finally the teacher just gave him his own pencils -- which he continues to chew -- and it is no longer an issue among her classmates. Perhaps your student's problem is more pervasive and severe, but I thought this sounded like a reasonable accommodation for a child whose chewing problem was more than just a casual or absent-minded behavior.
In my 2nd grade class we have a student with ADHD who is often unfocused during independent work, frustrates easily, has difficulty with boundaries (getting into his classmates’ physical spaces and inserting himself into their business), and lacks impulse control (occasionally getting aggressive when he doesn’t get his way).
To help him focus on his work and keep him from distracting other students, we often send him to the “cozy corner” (one of a few desks in a room where most seating is at tables). This is not seen as a punishment – he’s not the only student we send there and some students who prefer a quiet or separate space to work often ask to sit there, too.
The teacher works with the school social worker to develop specific verbal cues to help this student recognize when his behavior has crossed (or is about to cross) a line. The phrase “boundary alert” lets him know he’s making other students uncomfortable with close proximity, bossiness, etc. When we sense that his anger is mounting or that he’s getting over stimulated, we say, “stop, step back, and think.” Lots of repetition and lots of positive reinforcement seem to help – so does having crystal clear rules and firm, logical consequences. A few months ago at recess, he threw a block of ice at a classmate and checked him against a fence. The consequences were a week of no recess and apology letters. The teacher handled the discipline very publicly – discussing the behavior first with the individual student and then as a whole class, letting everyone know what the consequences were. Somewhat to my surprise, everyone seemed relieved to have the situation dealt with in this way – once the consequence and apology was made public, the class was quick to forgive and move on. I think that the class needed a break from this student, and I think he needed a break from a chronically stressful situation.
One last thing that’s been successful with this student is an assigned place in line. Many classmates had been complaining that this student was pushing in line and jockeying for a place near the front. The teacher’s solution was to assign him to always be 4th in line and have him practice saying “excuse me” and taking his place in a civilized way. A few students did grumble about the fairness of this, and the teacher’s response was basically that life is not fair, that different things are hard for different people and we need to set expectations for individuals accordingly. This explanation was accepted by the group and lining up has not been contentious since.
In a classroom with seven students on IEPs, I have had several experiences where I was able to reflect on an instance and discuss it with my instructor. One student in particular has ADHD and a nervous twitch. I have noticed that when he is anxious or nervous, the student will put his hand in his pocket and rub his genitals. He has a tendency to also put his hand up his shirt where he will rub his nipple. I did not notice my instructor addressing the situation, but brought it up to her following an incident I experienced while filling in for her one day.
The student was anxious over a writing prompt and had a question for me. While asking the question, the student put his hand down his pants. His behavior lasted only seconds and he moved his hand back to the top of his desk where he began writing. I was unsure how to address the incident since I had not seen my instructor speak to him about it and I had never seen him physically put his hand in his pants prior to that moment.
My instructor was in the follow day and I immediately informed her of what happened. I told her I was uncomfortable with the incident because I was unsure how to address it. Due to the sexual context, I wanted her opinion on how to handle the situation in the future. Apparently, this had been a problem last semester that had appeared to settle, but was flaring up again. My instructor said it had been addressed with the student before and that she would tell him that she needed to see his hands. She said I could have quietly asked him to wash his hands, as she had done in the past. My instructor brought up the incident with a behavior specialist who works with the student. She suggested that we have the student step outside of the classroom each time he puts his hands in the pockets or his hand up his shirt and that we create a silent sign we can share with the student that he knows when he needs to excuse himself. The sign would prevent him from being embarrassed by being pointed out teach him. The specialist said she would call the student’s mother to let her know that this was becoming an issue again.
Since this incident, the instructor has asked the student to place his hands on his desk. There had not been a specific sign established as of yet, although the quick mention of moving his hands seems to be helping the student acknowledge his behavior.
There was a student in our classroom who just left us over winter break for a one to one academic resource room at a different school. When with us, for majority of the day, he was either pulled out of the classroom for services or working with an adult in the classroom for support. When he was present for whole class instruction, he was often extremely disruptive and had a very difficult time sustaining attention for more than a thirty second time span. If a day was particularly difficult he would often be found sprawled over furniture, on the floor, constantly in and out of the room or making a continuous stream of noises and talking during instruction or rug meetings. He tended to attempt the role of “class clown” and was often successful as he is a social student with a wonderful personality and was beloved by his fellow classmates.. If not receiving support during the whole class time, I would work with him for the entire class time. When working one to one with an adult, he had glimpses and moments of attention and was engaged in learning but even these were rare.
It was such a struggle with the team of both classroom teachers, special educators, adjustment counselor and other staff to devise a way to best address his disruptions in the classroom. He had a behavior plan and rewards in place that simply did not motivate him at all. He would respond positively to short rewards, such as using a pencil/erasable pen from the teacher or computer incentive time but nothing sustained over time. It was difficult because he was often seemed defeated and would simply disengage, opting for disruption instead of production. This may have stemmed because grade level work was very difficult for him, especially in a whole class setting.
When he would disrupt, it would often be so severe that the default solution put into place was to ask him to sit away from the group or in the quiet room. It was often impossible to conduct a full morning or end of day meeting without him having to leave the rug or room. Every teacher was extremely positive when working with him in academic or social settings. It was such a struggle to see glimpses of success for him then to have him completely melt down and other kids felt consequences from his behavior. The classroom teacher often advised me to address his behavior by speaking to the reactions of his classmates. For example, she had students focus on trying not to laugh at all the disruptions during rug meeting and explicitly told students not give him an audience. She stated to students that the behavior would cease if no one was paying attention to it. That is hard to manage for kids of any age but there were clearly times where students were extremely frustrated by the disruptions and sometimes the reminder to be aware that they were in charge of their own reaction helped. While the class may miss their friend and teachers their student, it is a stark difference in the classroom without him. It was startling to realize the amount of disruption that occurred once it was no longer there.
During my first observation I launched a math unit on time. After witnessing its success, my practicing teacher offered to let me continue the unit and develop my own lessons and tools for its implementation. I quickly discovered that one child had not yet mastered skip counting by 5s, which poses a huge challenge to mastering the second grade standard of telling time to the nearest five minutes. I developed a series of small group lessons to explicitly teach clock skills. While students were practicing these skills, both independently and collaboratively, I provided one-on-one interventions with this child. This child has a history of struggling with the math curriculum and does not typically recognize these moments or request help. My first intervention was not a success. I created flash cards of the numbers 5 through 60, skip counting by 5. The child was asked to put them in order first and then place them around a clock. The next step was to fill in the missing minutes on a clock diagram. Despite my encouragement, he seemed uninterested in the task, hastily ordering the cards and putting them aside. A specialist in the building was notified of his continued struggles with math and the strategies that I was using to support him. My next intervention met with a better reception from the child. This tool was a double layered clock. The top layer had the numbers 1-12 like a regular clock, but when you folded back the numbers, the minutes they represented were underneath. The child liked this tool and I encouraged him to count on his own first, but to check his answer on with the clock tool. At first he would get stuck at 15, saying 50 and then moving to 55. After a while he internalized the 15 and the next day he made no errors in skip counting by 5s. The specialist also noticed his progress. The final tool I have used both with this child and the rest of the class. I created a clock with a colorful circle that pulls out to highlight the minutes after the hour and the minutes before the next hour. This tool graphically divides the clock into sections to calculate. During a calendar review tomorrow, I plan on working with this child to make sure he is caught up on the new skill after spending extensive time learning to read the clock. On Friday I will be giving an assessment on time-related skills and my practicing teacher has offered to let me run interventions next week if there are any students who are not successful.
A few years ago I was assigned as a 1:1 aide to work with a 12 year old boy with learning and emotional disabilities. He had been physically abused by a parent and experienced a form of post-traumatic stress, often having explosive outbursts and episodes. My friend is actually a very sweet and compassionate young man with a fantastic sense of humor; however these outbursts often alienated him from his peers.
Early in the fall semester, we were preparing to board a bus to Plymouth Plantation for our annual field trip. The students were waiting in the classroom with their backpacks, excitedly talking in groups while the classroom teacher and I finished up last minute details. My friend had brought a Star Wars book series to keep him occupied on the hour and a half bus ride. Another student saw the books and picked them up without waiting for his approval. He yelled at the other boy for touching without asking, drawing the attention of the adjustment counselor who was passing by the classroom. She was already worried about how he would handle the unstructured nature of a field trip. He had an explosive outburst during a field trip to Boston the year before and the counselor could not join us on this trip to monitor him. We brought him to her office to talk and de-escalate the situation. Instead, he became more agitated to which she told him that she wasn't comfortable letting him go on the trip when he was not using his calming strategies for safe behavior. After consulting our ABA specialist, the counselor made the decision to keep him at school and sent the rest of the class on the trip. At this point he started yelling and screaming that he wanted to go with his class, then he was begging, apologizing and promising good behavior. When the counselor stood by her decision, he grabbed hold of the bench he was sitting on and started slamming it up and down. The principal had now joined us and gave me a signal to sit on one arm of the bench and she sat on the other, effectively stopping him from lifting the bench. He was red-faced and out of breath from his rant and eventually worn out, fell asleep on the bench. When his mother arrived to pick him up, he burst into tears and clung to her. He was heartbroken and so were all the adults. We all felt like we had failed him.
The next day, we met as a team, and decided that for all future unstructured events, such as a field trip or special assembly, that we would have a set behavior protocol to review with him before the event. I would type up a detailed itinerary for the day with the expected behavior and then review this with him the day before the event. We emailed the itinerary home to mom so that she could review it with him too. We also decided that we had to keep the classroom quiet and structured or give him a task while waiting to leave on a field trip. By anticipating possible triggers and making expectations explicitly clear, we were able to avoid future issues. I’m happy to say that this was the only explosive incident all year with this boy. He is now a happy, outgoing high school student with a nice circle of friends.
One student who I have spent a good deal of time with is “Arnold”. He is an inclusion student with ADHD and is emotionally not where his fellow sec on graders are. Almost every day, Arnold will be upset at not playing what he wants at recess, playing what he wants but not winning, not kicking the ball far enough, missing a read-a-loud, not being first in line, or being first in line. Without a large amount of teacher attention, Arnold will continually wander and do his own thing - look out a window, browse books, chat about random topics with others. He even has difficulty sitting for short morning meetings. With a teacher by his side, Arnold has little difficulty in accomplishing his work and often makes observations that other students had missed.
ReplyDeleteI am lucky to have the thoughts, opinions, and guidance of two practitioners. Each have given me insights into working with Arnold. Depending on the situation, he needs differing reassurances.
* In the classroom, Arnold likes to have the support of a teacher nearby. Often though, with too many students around him he will be distracted by conversations. In these instances we find a special spot for Arnold to work. The spot should be presented as something special and not as punishment. Once in a new seat, Arnold will work quickly and perform well.
* When he is in a setting for large group instruction or morning meetings, if he is exhibiting too much energy and too little focus, he has some tools to help him settle. He has a small lap pillow and a small blanket. The lap pillow is weighted and helps him stay seated. The blanket he can hold and play with to help ensure that his nervous energy is centered. He has also taken to being my buddy at morning meetings and the starts of reading workshop. He will sit in a chair next to me as opposed to on the floor with his classmates. His fellow students know that these small accommodations are to help him and they are his tools to help him learn. There is never any, “Why does Arnold get X, Y, or Z?”
* The playground can be a different beast. Most days Arnold leaves recess to enter lunch and he is crying. Every day could be for a different reason. As I am the one who brings all forty-three students to lunch and gets them seated, and then in line for their lunch, and keeps them behaved all during, it can be difficult to have one student who needs so much emotional support. But I do it. It has always been advised to be as patient and supportive as possible. To be encouraging but also to explain things to show Arnold the truth. Be fair. I often find myself calming Arnold down for the first few minutes of lunch until he is ready to get in line to receive his meal.
Overall, there are many facets to working with Arnold. And since he has difficulty in varying settings, I must be prepared for anything. My teachers have always said that it is best to be patient and supportive of him. Using the tools as necessary and encourage him to be part of the group is extremely important. I feel as though that each day and each experience has helped me in supporting Arnold in his educational and emotional growth.
I always worry when giving students in class accommodations that other students will want it, not feel it's fair, or become distracted. It seems like your class has it working well, though. I wonder how these tools were introduced, and if they were explained to other students, or if they were seamlessly integrated in.
DeleteMadeline-
DeleteWhy not ask Jason's teacher these questions!
There are two students in my classroom who have accommodations that allow them to sit in a chair outside the circle when the class is seated on the rug. This is purportedly to help them actively participate, yet diminish the number of distractions to themselves and to others that happen when they sit on the floor with their peers. These students seem to have difficulty sitting still for any period of time, and will speak out of turn more often than other students. They also tend to fidget and invade upon other students personal space without realizing they are doing so.
ReplyDeleteThese students are allowed to sit on balance mats and to play with thera-putty in order to help them focus their energy and stay seated. This does not work consistently. I think it works best when the meetings are short, and the students are not hungry, tired, or feeling emotionally distressed.
I think both these students feel left out of group meetings. Their classmates seem to understand that they aren't getting special treatment, but I am not sure the students themselves understand why they are sitting outside the group. I could be projecting, but I fear that in a way, the physical placement of being outside the group seems to enhance their sense of social isolation. On more than one occasion when they fidgeted or were disruptive in their chairs, my teacher has asked them to sit in a break chair, or leave the room. I'm not sure that is helpful, but I realize that as a teacher it is frustrating to be doing everything according to plan, but still be facing significant interruptions from students.
Even in their accommodation chairs, these students have difficulty. There have been times when they end up lying on the floor or crawling under furniture. One time one of these students was crawling around talking to himself and saying "why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? I'm so stupid". It was obvious to me that he was very conflicted internally because he was aware that he was out of control with his body, but did not have the self control to fix it. Normally this child would be told to leave the room and sit doing nothing in a chair in the hallway. The theraputty is his only calming tool, as anything else could be perceived as a reward for the child and exacerbate his behavior. But in this case I redirected the child to drawing. I had him sit at a table near the group, and I gave him a pencil and a piece of paper and the shape stencils I know he likes. He immediately calmed down, and sat through the rest of the meeting without fidgeting or making excessive noises. I'd be suspicious about whether or not he was paying attention to the meeting, but I believe he was because he participated a couple times. He was calling out instead of raising his hand, but at least through calling out, I was able to assess that he was following the conversation and responding to the relevant topic. I don't think he felt he was being rewarded by being allowed to draw. I think he felt like he could calm down because he had the tools to be in control and no longer was embarrassed to be out of the group and caught up in his internal struggle.
It hurts to see many students feeling helpless to help themselves. I know it takes time for students to learn self control. I know that a room of students without self control is not conducive to learning. I don't know all the answers for how one or two teachers in a classroom of great need are supposed to be able to give each child all the support they need to feel successful. I guess it's a lot of trial and error, relying on advice from the behavior specialists, and trying to maintain consistency while also being flexible. It is important to try to do as little harm as possible to any individual while trying to help everyone as a group.
I feel that, for some students, self control needs to be explicitly taught. Also, you talk about how the student needs something to calm him down and help reduce his anxiety. I attended a workshop on behavior management once, tailored more for after school programs, and one idea that I took away was a fidget basket. There are some things, like squishy balls or animals, that students can hold while listening. It's hard to imagine how to implement that with 22 students, but it's something to consider. Also, I think it's great how you were able to get the student to sit, draw, calm down, and even participate in the conversation. Giving the tools to certain students to help them calm down is a huge deal, and something that I feel we don't learn in graduate school, nor is the focus of any professional development.
DeleteElizabeth Prior 2nd grade
ReplyDeleteI worked as a Special Ed Para with a student in 1st grade who had high functioning autism. I worked 1:1 with him from October to January of this school year. He excelled in Math and was reading at a 2nd grade level. Reading the words was easy although the comprehension piece was weak for him. His routines were important to him and his visual icons helped him keep on track comfortably through out his day. His recess was the same everyday.
He would swing on the swing holding his head back towards the sunshine and close his eyes and smile- Back and forth, back and forth he would swing for the entire time if I'd let him. After the bell rang, we would walk back to the class passing the main doors of the school to Door #17 which was right beside his 1st grade classroom. This Door #17 was his constant routine everyday and he would remind me everyday! On this particular day, he became distracted with a much loved teacher he saw at the Main Doors of the school. He galloped up to her, as she opened the door and proceeded on saying Hi to her about 5 times in a row. I went along with his lead and temporarily forgot about Door #17 in regards to his everyday routine. When I realized about the "forgotten Door #17" we both were walking into his classroom and then it was too late. As soon as he walked in, he had a blank look on his face as if he knew exactly what had happened. He fell to the floor and had a complete melt-down while his teacher and I tried to comfort him and explain. After he was feeling better, I bumped into his speech therapist specialist in the hall and relayed the entire incident of Door #17.
She then explained that consistency/routine was the key, but if there needed to be a change it had to be done it was all in the visual and verbal ques at least 15 minutes in advance. She reminded me that it was not my fault in following his lead and that he chose to break his routine even though it wasn't conscious on his part. She helped me feel better about the incident and the experience was a invaluable.
It's such a tough call when you know the student needs the routine, but they are the one that breaks the routine. You want to follow their lead, and it's sometimes so hard to know if they are consciously deciding to change the routine or will have a meltdown over it, like your student did. Yet, in the moment, you certainly did the right thing. Should you have told him not to go see a favorite teacher? Should you have told the teacher he couldn't go in that door, but needed to go into Door #17? Yet learning to work with a student during such a moment is a huge learning experience, no matter how long you've been working in education. I'm glad you had the speech therapist there to talk about it with, and help you process.
Delete1st grade:
ReplyDeleteThere is a student in my class who has difficultly with his impulsivity, and manifests his anxiety by chewing on things. All of our pencils are chewed on, and some of the large erasers. His peers are also aware of it, and do not like it. I cannot blame them. We talk about how we don’t put our fingers in our noses because it spreads germs, and spit is the same. The other students don’t tease him about it, but I worry that there are social ramifications. This is tough for a kid that has a hard time being nice to peers as it is.
Periodically, the student will come in with something that looks like a toy, but explains that it’s for him to chew on. One time, he wore a plastic, coiled necklace that stretched. He then proceeded to chew on it, and then play with it so that it sprayed his spit everywhere. That did not work. He also has come in with gum, but swallows it halfway through the morning. And it’s difficult to let him have gum, when the classroom rule is no gum. His parents mentioned some other chew items, but we have yet to see them materialize.
One thing that has worked is feeding him. He eats and eats, and always seems hungry, and is a skinny kid. We have parents bring in snack, so we often have extra baby carrots. He eats baby carrots by the handful.
Other than feeding him, nothing seems to help the chewing. I’m not sure what else to do, and the special education teacher isn’t sure as well. She has a good relationship with him. I don’t believe she has the same problem, but she pulls him for one-on-one help for 30 minutes at a time. Points of high stress outside of school make the problem worse, and it’s hard to predict when they will come. I remind him to keep things out of his mouth, and depending on his mood, that helps.
My daughter, who is in 1st grade, reported to me recently that a student in her class was chewing pencils, that the rest of the class was bothered by it, and that he did not stop when asked. She said that finally the teacher just gave him his own pencils -- which he continues to chew -- and it is no longer an issue among her classmates. Perhaps your student's problem is more pervasive and severe, but I thought this sounded like a reasonable accommodation for a child whose chewing problem was more than just a casual or absent-minded behavior.
DeleteIn my 2nd grade class we have a student with ADHD who is often unfocused during independent work, frustrates easily, has difficulty with boundaries (getting into his classmates’ physical spaces and inserting himself into their business), and lacks impulse control (occasionally getting aggressive when he doesn’t get his way).
ReplyDeleteTo help him focus on his work and keep him from distracting other students, we often send him to the “cozy corner” (one of a few desks in a room where most seating is at tables). This is not seen as a punishment – he’s not the only student we send there and some students who prefer a quiet or separate space to work often ask to sit there, too.
The teacher works with the school social worker to develop specific verbal cues to help this student recognize when his behavior has crossed (or is about to cross) a line. The phrase “boundary alert” lets him know he’s making other students uncomfortable with close proximity, bossiness, etc. When we sense that his anger is mounting or that he’s getting over stimulated, we say, “stop, step back, and think.” Lots of repetition and lots of positive reinforcement seem to help – so does having crystal clear rules and firm, logical consequences. A few months ago at recess, he threw a block of ice at a classmate and checked him against a fence. The consequences were a week of no recess and apology letters. The teacher handled the discipline very publicly – discussing the behavior first with the individual student and then as a whole class, letting everyone know what the consequences were. Somewhat to my surprise, everyone seemed relieved to have the situation dealt with in this way – once the consequence and apology was made public, the class was quick to forgive and move on. I think that the class needed a break from this student, and I think he needed a break from a chronically stressful situation.
One last thing that’s been successful with this student is an assigned place in line. Many classmates had been complaining that this student was pushing in line and jockeying for a place near the front. The teacher’s solution was to assign him to always be 4th in line and have him practice saying “excuse me” and taking his place in a civilized way. A few students did grumble about the fairness of this, and the teacher’s response was basically that life is not fair, that different things are hard for different people and we need to set expectations for individuals accordingly. This explanation was accepted by the group and lining up has not been contentious since.
In a classroom with seven students on IEPs, I have had several experiences where I was able to reflect on an instance and discuss it with my instructor. One student in particular has ADHD and a nervous twitch. I have noticed that when he is anxious or nervous, the student will put his hand in his pocket and rub his genitals. He has a tendency to also put his hand up his shirt where he will rub his nipple. I did not notice my instructor addressing the situation, but brought it up to her following an incident I experienced while filling in for her one day.
ReplyDeleteThe student was anxious over a writing prompt and had a question for me. While asking the question, the student put his hand down his pants. His behavior lasted only seconds and he moved his hand back to the top of his desk where he began writing. I was unsure how to address the incident since I had not seen my instructor speak to him about it and I had never seen him physically put his hand in his pants prior to that moment.
My instructor was in the follow day and I immediately informed her of what happened. I told her I was uncomfortable with the incident because I was unsure how to address it. Due to the sexual context, I wanted her opinion on how to handle the situation in the future. Apparently, this had been a problem last semester that had appeared to settle, but was flaring up again. My instructor said it had been addressed with the student before and that she would tell him that she needed to see his hands. She said I could have quietly asked him to wash his hands, as she had done in the past. My instructor brought up the incident with a behavior specialist who works with the student. She suggested that we have the student step outside of the classroom each time he puts his hands in the pockets or his hand up his shirt and that we create a silent sign we can share with the student that he knows when he needs to excuse himself. The sign would prevent him from being embarrassed by being pointed out teach him. The specialist said she would call the student’s mother to let her know that this was becoming an issue again.
Since this incident, the instructor has asked the student to place his hands on his desk. There had not been a specific sign established as of yet, although the quick mention of moving his hands seems to be helping the student acknowledge his behavior.
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ReplyDeleteThere was a student in our classroom who just left us over winter break for a one to one academic resource room at a different school. When with us, for majority of the day, he was either pulled out of the classroom for services or working with an adult in the classroom for support. When he was present for whole class instruction, he was often extremely disruptive and had a very difficult time sustaining attention for more than a thirty second time span. If a day was particularly difficult he would often be found sprawled over furniture, on the floor, constantly in and out of the room or making a continuous stream of noises and talking during instruction or rug meetings. He tended to attempt the role of “class clown” and was often successful as he is a social student with a wonderful personality and was beloved by his fellow classmates.. If not receiving support during the whole class time, I would work with him for the entire class time. When working one to one with an adult, he had glimpses and moments of attention and was engaged in learning but even these were rare.
ReplyDeleteIt was such a struggle with the team of both classroom teachers, special educators, adjustment counselor and other staff to devise a way to best address his disruptions in the classroom. He had a behavior plan and rewards in place that simply did not motivate him at all. He would respond positively to short rewards, such as using a pencil/erasable pen from the teacher or computer incentive time but nothing sustained over time. It was difficult because he was often seemed defeated and would simply disengage, opting for disruption instead of production. This may have stemmed because grade level work was very difficult for him, especially in a whole class setting.
When he would disrupt, it would often be so severe that the default solution put into place was to ask him to sit away from the group or in the quiet room. It was often impossible to conduct a full morning or end of day meeting without him having to leave the rug or room. Every teacher was extremely positive when working with him in academic or social settings. It was such a struggle to see glimpses of success for him then to have him completely melt down and other kids felt consequences from his behavior. The classroom teacher often advised me to address his behavior by speaking to the reactions of his classmates. For example, she had students focus on trying not to laugh at all the disruptions during rug meeting and explicitly told students not give him an audience. She stated to students that the behavior would cease if no one was paying attention to it. That is hard to manage for kids of any age but there were clearly times where students were extremely frustrated by the disruptions and sometimes the reminder to be aware that they were in charge of their own reaction helped. While the class may miss their friend and teachers their student, it is a stark difference in the classroom without him. It was startling to realize the amount of disruption that occurred once it was no longer there.
For Jessica:
ReplyDeleteDuring my first observation I launched a math unit on time. After witnessing its success, my practicing teacher offered to let me continue the unit and develop my own lessons and tools for its implementation. I quickly discovered that one child had not yet mastered skip counting by 5s, which poses a huge challenge to mastering the second grade standard of telling time to the nearest five minutes. I developed a series of small group lessons to explicitly teach clock skills. While students were practicing these skills, both independently and collaboratively, I provided one-on-one interventions with this child. This child has a history of struggling with the math curriculum and does not typically recognize these moments or request help. My first intervention was not a success. I created flash cards of the numbers 5 through 60, skip counting by 5. The child was asked to put them in order first and then place them around a clock. The next step was to fill in the missing minutes on a clock diagram. Despite my encouragement, he seemed uninterested in the task, hastily ordering the cards and putting them aside. A specialist in the building was notified of his continued struggles with math and the strategies that I was using to support him. My next intervention met with a better reception from the child. This tool was a double layered clock. The top layer had the numbers 1-12 like a regular clock, but when you folded back the numbers, the minutes they represented were underneath. The child liked this tool and I encouraged him to count on his own first, but to check his answer on with the clock tool. At first he would get stuck at 15, saying 50 and then moving to 55. After a while he internalized the 15 and the next day he made no errors in skip counting by 5s. The specialist also noticed his progress. The final tool I have used both with this child and the rest of the class. I created a clock with a colorful circle that pulls out to highlight the minutes after the hour and the minutes before the next hour. This tool graphically divides the clock into sections to calculate. During a calendar review tomorrow, I plan on working with this child to make sure he is caught up on the new skill after spending extensive time learning to read the clock. On Friday I will be giving an assessment on time-related skills and my practicing teacher has offered to let me run interventions next week if there are any students who are not successful.
Kathy Volpone:
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I was assigned as a 1:1 aide to work with a 12 year old boy with learning and emotional disabilities. He had been physically abused by a parent and experienced a form of post-traumatic stress, often having explosive outbursts and episodes. My friend is actually a very sweet and compassionate young man with a fantastic sense of humor; however these outbursts often alienated him from his peers.
Early in the fall semester, we were preparing to board a bus to Plymouth Plantation for our annual field trip. The students were waiting in the classroom with their backpacks, excitedly talking in groups while the classroom teacher and I finished up last minute details. My friend had brought a Star Wars book series to keep him occupied on the hour and a half bus ride. Another student saw the books and picked them up without waiting for his approval. He yelled at the other boy for touching without asking, drawing the attention of the adjustment counselor who was passing by the classroom. She was already worried about how he would handle the unstructured nature of a field trip. He had an explosive outburst during a field trip to Boston the year before and the counselor could not join us on this trip to monitor him. We brought him to her office to talk and de-escalate the situation. Instead, he became more agitated to which she told him that she wasn't comfortable letting him go on the trip when he was not using his calming strategies for safe behavior. After consulting our ABA specialist, the counselor made the decision to keep him at school and sent the rest of the class on the trip. At this point he started yelling and screaming that he wanted to go with his class, then he was begging, apologizing and promising good behavior. When the counselor stood by her decision, he grabbed hold of the bench he was sitting on and started slamming it up and down. The principal had now joined us and gave me a signal to sit on one arm of the bench and she sat on the other, effectively stopping him from lifting the bench. He was red-faced and out of breath from his rant and eventually worn out, fell asleep on the bench. When his mother arrived to pick him up, he burst into tears and clung to her. He was heartbroken and so were all the adults. We all felt like we had failed him.
The next day, we met as a team, and decided that for all future unstructured events, such as a field trip or special assembly, that we would have a set behavior protocol to review with him before the event. I would type up a detailed itinerary for the day with the expected behavior and then review this with him the day before the event. We emailed the itinerary home to mom so that she could review it with him too. We also decided that we had to keep the classroom quiet and structured or give him a task while waiting to leave on a field trip. By anticipating possible triggers and making expectations explicitly clear, we were able to avoid future issues. I’m happy to say that this was the only explosive incident all year with this boy. He is now a happy, outgoing high school student with a nice circle of friends.