We had such high hopes for the new behavior plan Barney's school implemented on Monday. It worked like a charm for three days but despite careful planning, the team forgot to factor in Phys Ed.
Barney attends the largest elementary school in town. There are 4 or 5 classes at each grade level resulting in overcrowding. One of the consequences of this overcrowding is doubling up classes for Gym. Barney has Sensory Processing Disorder and is very sensitive to sound. We cannot easily take him to any of the warehouse type stores (Home Depot, COSTCO, Wal Mart, etc) without a meltdown. The vast space, echo, and crowds quickly put him into sensory overload. And what do a warehouse store and a school gym have in common? You got it: sensory overload for my boy.
Being the true Aspie that he is, Barney craves order and predictability. Thursday's gym class activity was a game of random order. Balls bouncing all over the gym while 44 second graders ran around making noise and my kid was already at maximum overload. When the whistle blew, anyone holding one of the 5 orange balls became a leader of the next round. Round 1, Barney didn't get a ball and he was OK. Round 2 and he didn't get a ball; his distress began to increase. Round 3 and no ball, he grabbed one out of another child's hand. He was put in time out for 5 minutes and returned to the game. Immediate repeat of round 3 behavior and he was removed from the gym. Upon removal he became physically aggressive.
As required by his behavior plan, any physical aggression towards another person lands him in a half-day, in school suspension. Is it just me or could this episode have been prevented if the staff had acknowledged his SPD and handled things differently? I feel like I am eternally waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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