Well I had the meeting with the teachers and have a new issue at hand because Griffin is a little angel at school and doesn't have meltdowns, so now I need to figure out why he is only having them at home and at therapy. They said that Griffin doesn't have any gestural stereotypy at school and that when he does start to have a meltdown then he is easily redirected and seems to calm down just fine. And that thing that he does in reverse when he is successful, like when he wins at a game and then gets upset as he does in therapy, they said that he loves winning at school and that he loves it when the other kids praise him.
The speech pathologist was not present at the meeting this morning so I don't know about his stuttering so I guess that I will have to wait until the middle of March for the IEP to talk to her and if he is stuttering then I will request a FBA by a BCBA so that we can get down to the root of the matter.
I don't know where to begin except that I know that if I don't do something soon then it is going to get out of hand. I don't know if he is just trying to manipulate me and his therapists or if there is truly something going on beneath that I am just not seeing. I do know that I am going to start redirecting him and saying what his teacher says to him, "Griffin if you have a meltdown then I just might have a meltdown too!" and apparently that makes his eyes big and he doesn't know what to think but it stops him in his tracks. Maybe I am not giving him enough positive reinforcement but he gets plenty of that in therapy and still acts out. We have an appointment with his doctor on the 2nd but I just don't think that it is a medication issue if he is fine at school so we are not going to change his meds.
I am going to discuss this with his psychologist on the 1st because he knows Griffin and can help me out with this I believe. In the meantime if any of you have suggestions on what you would do then I welcome your comments.
5 comments:
Hi Lora, I relate to what you say. My son also is calm at school and then lets go at home. In his old school, his behaviour after school was terrible; really scary and I was really stressed. Now he is in a specialist school for autistic children, his behaviour has become less dramatic but we still get meltdowns but not so often. When I do see the start of a meltdown in my son, I ease off communicating with my son and try and divert him to something that may ease things. Using cue cards instead of communicating can help though my son would never respond to these. I also give him old newspapers to tear up which sometimes works, also tried the usual sensory things (pressure etc) and more recently I find the computer helpful. But sometimes I just can't stop his meltdowns. I think getting advice from the psychologist is a great idea; we did the same recently.
@Aspie, Thank you for sharing with me what you do with your son, this is helpful. I especially like the old newspapers idea because I think that Griffin would get a lot out of it.
Unfortunately I have no great advice Lora. We have been having some real behavior issues lately too, but at school he is perfect! They basically she almost no Autism at all at school, and then when he gets home, bam! He unleashes it all on us. So if you do get some good tips and answers, please share!
I have no suggestions either, Lora. What is your gut telling you? When I have problems with Cody, or any of my kids for that matter, I try to slow down and get in tune with my gut instinct.
I would make sure to do extensive observations at school to make sure they are being honest regarding telling you his behaviors are fine at school. I can't tell you how many times I have heard a district say that and then when we send in experts to observe it's a mess and it becomes clear that the child is not only having problems within school, but WHY they are having those problems. School districts also say this in hopes that you won't feel that you have to come in and observe. Don't take their word on this. Make sure you observe and get weekly observations written into the IEP.
Post a Comment