Hi everyone! I am the proud mom of a five year old autistic little girl. She falls in the medium high range on the spectrum. She was diagnosed at 3 years old and it was devastating, at first. Now, we have grown to cherish all her little ways, tho! Suddenly, however, we are dealing with the problem of hitting people and throwing things at kindergarten. She was moved to a new school b/c her old school, we were told, was not advanced enough for her development. She was racing through all their goals for her. She has been having a very hard time transitioning over, though. She is hitting her teachers and classmates and throwing her books, etc. She didn't do this at her old school. I'm at a loss on how to correct this behavior. Her teacher is so nice and understanding, but this is a real problem for me b/c it is a new thing. Any advice? Thanks!
P.S. I was also wondering if anyone has tried Epsom salt therapy in removing toxins from their child's system?
She's probably frightenened.
She's probably frightenened.
Hi Rai, Have you ever tried
Hi Rai,
Have you ever tried Social Stories for her? They are made for an individual child based on whatever social situation they are dealing with( hitting, dealing with transitions, etc. ) Carol Gray is the woman who created them. I think she also created social scripts which tell the child some options for dealing with situations which might make them anxious. There is also a book called Power Cards which helps you take the child's favorite character and use that to created a pocket sized card to serve as a reminder in certain situations. Jed Baker is another great author who has materials on social skills training for children with autism. Jed has a book with real pictures of what to do and what not to do at school.
In addtion to the social skills training piece, the school team will need to track how often she is having the behaviors you described, who is around, what is their reaction, is is just one person she is responding to, are the kids doing anything to prevoke her, etc. It is called a Functional Behavior Assessment. However, not everyone really knows how to do one. The move to a new school could be difficult for her, especially since it sounds like she was doing so well at the other school. They other school probably had many supports in place that she needed. Does the new school have visual supports in place for her, a schedule, timers, transition cues to let her know when an activity will be done and when they will move on to another activity, is the classroom structured? All these elements could possibly contribute.
AutismClassroom.com
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Thank you for your reply! I
Thank you for your reply! I haven't tried your ideas, but the power cards sound great! I just bought it off amazon, so hopefully it will work for us. I did not know about the Functional Behavioral Assessment and will definitely ask her teacher, if they will be performing one on her. Her prior classroom was very structured and more nurturing it would seem. As she is now in a higher functioning classroom, there are still cues and schedules, but it seems to be really focused on teaching independent play, academic skills (which the things they are teaching, she already knows how to do fluently) classroom chores. etc. When we were asked what we really wanted to see for her in the coming year, we had said that social skills were our primary focus, but it seems like the other things are taking precedence. So, we shall see. We have a meeting in Oct. Thanks again!
I agree, I think you need to
I agree, I think you need to to a careful assessment of both the new and the old environments in order to determine what things she found so helpful at the old school and what things are bothering her at this new one. It may be possible to bring some of the more critical elements of the old school into the new one to help smooth her transition. Also, if there is a sensory issue at the new school that was not at the old, a detailed comparison/assessment may be able to help you isolate it. One thing that was a big issue at one time for my son was "buzzing" fluorescent lights in one particular classroom. Once the lights were fixed, his issues (which included some pretty vehement tantrums) just disappeared. I think it's also important to look at how the other children are behaving towards her (and compare with how the other children were at the old school if you can remember). It could also be that she's experiencing more "pressure" to meet higher expectations and more difficult goals at the new school. It may seem excessive to analyze the situation in such detail, but anything that helps you isolate the real problem quickly is well worth the extra effort. It really does sound like this is not inherent agression, but frustration brought on by the recent changes to her routine.
Thank you for your reply,
Thank you for your reply, too! Those are some things that I never even considered! Now that I think about it, her school has very loud toilets in the classroom and her teacher mentioned that the noise seemed to scare her. A lot of the rooms also have big air conditioners in the windows, that my daughter is relly memzmerized by. I think the sound of those are comforting to her b/c we always have to stop and listen to them for a minute before we leave campus. Thanks for making me think about this stuff. This is very useful and I will be bringing these things up with her teacher. :-)
Welcome to the group. My son
Welcome to the group. My son throws things, hits, scratches. We've learned to keep heavy objects
out of reach. Oh and he bites too, cant forget that one, we've got the scars to prove it. Meds can
help. He doesnt attend school. Does your daughter talk at all?
Thanks for the reply! My
Thanks for the reply! My daughter, before attending the new school, rarely hit us or threw things. Don't get me wrong - it did happen, but not often at all and timeout always worked really well. She has never bitten. I really don't want to put her meds. The side effects really scare me. Some of them seem worse that the good of the benefits. Do you mind me asking - is your son on meds? If so, which ones and did you notice side effects? You don't have to answer, but info on that would really be helpful to us. She does talk in small sentences, but her language, thankfully is improving so much :-) Do you home school your son?
Oh its okay. Right now he's
Oh its okay. Right now he's on Focalin, his doctor just cut the dosage in half because we noticed a couple
hours after he took it he just stood in one spot and rocked. He wasnt being naughty, he just would stim
alot, be fascinated by his hands & not be interested in much of anything. Marcel is "technically" home
schooled. We checked out the local school and weren't happy with what we saw. Unfortunately Marcel will
roam off and the school isnt even fenced. We're in Tx, moved from California about four years ago to
buy a house. My son has a wonderful doctor. Meds can be very helpful. You must have a doctor you're
really comfortable with. Also watch for seizures. My son just started having them a few years ago. He's
okay now as long as he gets his anti~seizure meds. His diagnosis is severe autism, severe retardation,
severe seizure disorder. We've got our hands full.
She has a doc. appt.
She has a doc. appt. tomorow, but I really feel like, for her, meds are the very last resort b/c she is so high functioning and I'm afraid of her becoming like a zombie and getting sick. I have to say, I was doing research and, as I'm sure you know, autistic children have a hard time expelling toxins from their system b/c they can't absorb magnesium. So......I read an article that a lot of parents are turning to things like epsom salt. I put some in a spray bottle and after her bath (you can put it in a bath, too, but if they mistakenly drink the water, they can have upset stomach) I spritzed her back and chest with it. It dried quickly and I swear she was totally calm and went straight to bed, as she usually stays up playing for a while. I'm def. going to continue with it. It is salt, so it's a little stingy at first, but that went away quickly. So, does your son have seizures like shaking fits or is it more like outbursts? Sorry to hear the TX school systems didn't work for you :-( It must be hard not to get a break.......
He has grand mals. He had
He has grand mals. He had three huge seizures March 25th, each lasted well over five minutes. They're
horrible. I saw my husband have a heart attack when he was 43 and that wasnt nearly as frightning.
Thats why no matter what we make sure he gets both his anti seizure meds on time, our family cant go
through that again. With the two meds if he has a seizure it'll be a pedi mal, he's had those too. He's
been seizure free since March thank God.
We're older parents. I'll be 47 next week and my husband is 56. The school would have been fine
for a normal child, for a child that didnt wander off. It's like their special needs area was an after
thought. I got after the principal. I told him I have a house with a fence for my dog, and here you dont
even have a fence for children? And not even a week later I heard on the news that some guy had
snuck into a school and mollested a child in the bathroom. Hell the elementry school I went to in the
60s had a damn fence around it! And there were other things. Frankly somebody has to earn my trust
before I would think of leaving my son alone with them. Its scarey having a child who cant talk. Ive
said it before and I'll say it again if some son of a b*tch mollested my child he'd be a dead son of a
b*tch after I got ahold of him!! To tell you the truth I think I intimidated the principal just a little lol.
OMG My heart just stopped! I
OMG My heart just stopped! I checked my caller id and my daughter's school number showed up. There was no message, but I thought, "Ok This is it....She is expelled for knocking someone out" I called and her teacher said she was fine doing her work and that she didn't call! Whew!!!! So, maybe that means it was a good day :-)
I was wondering about
I was wondering about cutting the dose again rather than just pulling Marcel off Focalin completely. Is it still the XR or are you able to give the IR a try to better regulate the dose manually?
It's half of a 15 mg xr and
It's half of a 15 mg xr and so far so good....... keep your fingers crossed =)
All the pharmacists at
All the pharmacists at Target are hot! I love it when they come to the counter to explain all of the side effects, interactions, and interesting tidbits about the drugs. The guy yesterday had the longest eyelashes I've ever seen.
LOL we used to have THE best
LOL we used to have THE best looking fire fighters in California. One time I went with my husband
to service a reverse osmosis (he's in the water treatment business) so anyway we went to this
firehouse in San Diego. OMG I was surrounded by all these good lookin men lol, this was years ago.
There's something about being the only woman in a room surrounded by men!!
Trust California [sigh]. We
Trust California [sigh]. We have some hot firefighters/paramedics around here, but their humor at parties gets pretty "sick" and I never know whether to laugh, cry or throw up - lol.
Always when I see a fire
Always when I see a fire truck, I always rubber neck to have a good look.
And I never see any heart throbs. Just wisened old guys, (whom I'm sure are
just gorgeous to their wives).
I like fire men and I like when the cops wear their overalls. That's hot.
Hmmm. I'm not sure I know
Hmmm. I'm not sure I know what you mean about the cop overalls. You mean like DEA jumpsuits? (I think those are also called boiler suits). Well, I'll have to buy the calendar so I know what you're talking about.
I sort of like to see the motorcycle cops in their Wellies (specially reinforced boots). Of course, I'm sure at least half of those guys are total jerks, but the boots are cool.
Yeh the boiler suits. During
Yeh the boiler suits.
During the Olympics in Sydney 2000, they were all wearing them.
Us girls were just walking around having a good time checking them out.
Haven't seen the wellies.
You know, the motorcycle
You know, the motorcycle cops. Do they have those where you are?
Here in Tx alot of times the
Here in Tx alot of times the cops wear cowboy hats =)
Oh my god! I love cowboy
Oh my god! I love cowboy hats.
My dad (whose 87) used to
My dad (whose 87) used to ride rodeo in his younger days. He always wore a Stetson. Oh and in case
you didnt know Texas offs more bad guys than any other state. We have the death penalty and we
USE it yee haw =)~~~
Now this is totally unfair.
Now this is totally unfair. Our firefighters here are mostly volunteer, and just average joes. No hotties. There are a few new police officers that are cute, but two I went to school with so it just does not work out. I cannot flirt my way out of tickets anymore. Of course I have not actually gotten pulled over in years.
OMG they are!! I'm in Orange
OMG they are!! I'm in Orange County, CA. We always donate to their spark of love toy drive and I bring my girlfriends who are single to help me!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm down here in north
I'm down here in north county San Diego. I'll let my single girlfriends know about that toy drive :)
P.S., if you ever need an education attorney, Tim Adams at Roberts & Adams is an excellent lawyer. (Unfortunately for your single girlfriends, he's married :)
LOL and I bet you thought
LOL and I bet you thought this blog was just about autism.
Too funny! It's good to
Too funny! It's good to digress a little!
If she's in the
If she's in the medium-to-high-functioning range she probably does talk.
Thanks Nicole. I didnt even
Thanks Nicole. I didnt even notice that ugh. Too much goin on around here. Does Wyatt talk?
You'd think by now I would know that... whoopsy.