There were many challenges that presented themselves during the first week of school. The two that stood out the most were dealing with inappropriate behaviors/how to handle them and creating lesson plans that kept the children engaged the entire day. I have one student that spit in my face no less than 40 times during the first week, licked his hands and wiped them on me, drops his lunch on the floor intentionally and pinches very hard. I tried everything I could think of as a positive reinforcer to curve these behaviors and had no luck. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to share them with me. If they work I will be indebted to you forever. Secondly, creating a lesson plan for the first time in my life was very challenging. Block scheduling, no schedule from the Speech and Occupational Therapist and a lack of collaboration with the other special ed teachers in the department created many challenges developing a plan for the first week. I think I finally figured most of it out by Wednesday and will have a good lesson plan in place by Tuesday. Other than that it was a great first week and I look forward to getting back to the spitting on Tuesday.
PS: I was told the spitting would stop if I received the spit with no reaction. Do you know how hard it is not to blink when someone spits in you face? One spitting positive is that it gives my wife and I something amusing to talk about at night.
4 comments:
Years ago, when I was a paraeucator, I worked in the ED classroom and we had a spitter. He was a second grader who was angry with Life in general. He would also kick, pinch, bite, etc,real lovely child. As much as I wanted to give him an attitude adjustment
via the seat of his pants, I refrained. I did howver, wipe his spit off of me with part of his shirt-sleeve, tail, whatever I got hold of. He didn't like that at all, and he stopped spitting...eventually. Good luck!!~Evelyn Way
Cat. Isham
Jon, my heart goes out to you. I had a young lady with Asperger's last year. She spat at my face when I totally didn't expect it. She was really bent out of shape and I couldn't figure it out. Because she was higher functioning, after she returned from being suspended she and I talked. We started to keep track on a calendar together, noting when she started to feel that she was losing control. Before long she and I noticed a trend. Whenever she was heading into her cycle (yes folks, PMS strikes again) she would sprout horns out of her head and turn completely evil.
Luckily we all worked together, her mom, myself, my principal (and some help with her Dr) they ended up putting her on an anti-depressant which leveled her out a bit.
It was really hard for her though. She got anxious and felt like just crawling out of her skin because of the hormone bursts and the autism just amplified it.
It may sound stupid, but try to write down when everything occurs, try to divorce yourself of your emotions to recognize triggers.
~Cat
PS I think they are having one of our para's from Courthouse Academy,that worked with your young man come over & help with this situation. Am I right? He is a great guy and should be a big help..
Yes, Mike Rayna??? He is coming over on Tueaday I think. Evidently he has experience with Kelvin in the home and at school.
Yesterday, I had a student that started spitting too and my first thought was of your post and comments during class. My student is only in 1st grade. He has had a diffiuclt transition. Last year he was in a DD program in Caroline County where he was in a classroom of 6 students and 4 adults. I have 14 students on my caseload and only one para. although we are called an Ld calssroom, we in no way resemble an LD classroom. This student has Downs, and is very low academically. He is very stubborn and needs constant one on one assistance or he runs around the classoom knocking over everything in his path and if you are not fast enough, he will run out the door. He refuses to participate in any academics, so at any moment that I or my para step out of the room, all instruction stops becuase we have to focus our attention on him, which is probably what he wants. His parents told me that I needed to be more firm with him (as if I wasn't already). Yesterday, every time my para or I told him to do something or told him he could not do something, he spit at us (similiar to what some might call a raspberry). We have already had an IEP meeting for this student, and he will be given an unwritten one-on-one para. Hopefully my admin will be able to hire someone soon as we are all overwhelmed right now.
D. Knight
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