Not a great way to start the year. By the third day of school, his behavior landed him in the Principal's office. Thank goodness she knows him well given that he's been a frequent flier there since Kindergarten. She's calm, patient and firm with him which is exactly what he needs most when he's on a rampage. Barney gave her an ultimatum on that day," Give me harder work by October 1st or I'm never coming back!"
Unfortunately his behavior escalated to the point that the school gave up the focus on curriculum in favor of safety long before his deadline. So picture this, my gifted Aspie, who can read middle school literature with ease, spell any word in his vocabulary and add and subtract faster than most adults, sitting in a classroom working on long vowels. Most people suggest he should just keep a book in his desk for when he completes his work. Not so easy. Barney may be academically gifted, but socially, emotionally and behaviorally he's more like a preschooler. He's also loud, impulsive, bossy, inflexible, sensory defensive, anxious and has a hairpin trigger for meltdowns. September turned into his worst behavior month EVER.
Our early October IEP meeting morphed into a crisis intervention meeting . The TEAM spent hours brainstorming strategies to deescalate the frequency and intensity of Barney's meltdowns. I left that meeting exhausted but hopeful. The weeks following our meeting were dramatically better. Life wasn't perfect of course but, I could begin to imagine a day when I might be able to relax between the hours of 8:40 am and 2:40 pm.
Then the October blizzard hit. Our area was devastated by downed trees, live wires in the streets and a town wide power outage which lasted 8 days. Not only did the kids miss Halloween, school was canceled for an entire week. Now, a week off from school is always a challenge for a child who combats anxiety with predictability but an unscheduled week off with almost no information about when we would get back to normal was a recipe for disaster. Barney did amazingly well during the storm's aftermath. Everyday I'd make a schedule of our activities for the day to keep him calm. This worked well for us. Sleeping was another issue all together but I was impressed by how well he held himself together in general.
The children finally returned to school on November 7th. Barney returned to his class ready to work and was met by Halloween spelling words, Halloween math, a Halloween writing prompt and more Halloween activities. I am sure many of the children in the class did not appreciate the reminder that Halloween had been canceled but it was more than Barney could take. All the progress that had been made in the three weeks prior to the storm was lost and we were back to square one with his behavior.
Then the October blizzard hit. Our area was devastated by downed trees, live wires in the streets and a town wide power outage which lasted 8 days. Not only did the kids miss Halloween, school was canceled for an entire week. Now, a week off from school is always a challenge for a child who combats anxiety with predictability but an unscheduled week off with almost no information about when we would get back to normal was a recipe for disaster. Barney did amazingly well during the storm's aftermath. Everyday I'd make a schedule of our activities for the day to keep him calm. This worked well for us. Sleeping was another issue all together but I was impressed by how well he held himself together in general.
The children finally returned to school on November 7th. Barney returned to his class ready to work and was met by Halloween spelling words, Halloween math, a Halloween writing prompt and more Halloween activities. I am sure many of the children in the class did not appreciate the reminder that Halloween had been canceled but it was more than Barney could take. All the progress that had been made in the three weeks prior to the storm was lost and we were back to square one with his behavior.
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