An Unusual Field Trip

Well, we left early this morning for David's therapy appointment so we could take an unscheduled trip to Maryview Hosptial's Behavioral Center. David didn't know where we were going and I hated not telling him because I always prep him for where we are going. However in this case it was very important that he didn't know in case it caused a meltdown. 

For the past several days David has felt the need to throw stuff at me or hit me with things. I kept telling him that the behavior was inappropriate. Rather than wrestling the object away from him and causing more issue that would probably involve me getting hurt I have just been leaving the room. Yesterday I told him that if he didn't stop hitting me with stuff that he would have to go to the behavioral hospital so that mommy could be safe. Hence the trip this morning.

We went into the lobby of the hospital and sat there to talk.  I asked him to look at how plain the walls were and that there were no toys in an area that appeared to be for children. Just a painting of some fish on the wall. We talked about how he would not have any toys or video games to play here and that they don't have a tv to watch Spongebob on. David got a bit upset, but there were no meltdowns. He was just sad and quiet.

As we left I circled around the building and talked to him about how they don't serve Chef Boyardee or waffels/bagles with Nutella. He started to really cry at that point and I felt horrible. However, I knew I was doing the right thing by showing him that the hospital was real and telling him what would happen and that I couldn't stay with him.

David did really well during his therapy session after the hospital visit. I told his doctor about it and she said that it was great that I took him there. David was fidgety while we talked about the morning visit and how his behavior needs to improve. I am not sure why he has fallen back into the behavior of hitting and throwing things at me again, but hopefully we can work on resolving it.

Classroom Observation and Emergency IEP Meeting

Well, the classroom observation shed light on a lot of things. David is left to his own devices and ends up roaming around the room when not directed to do a task. Also there is classical music playing in the background all day during school (radio station set by his teacher) even during instruction. I observed that this is a big distractor for David.

During the IEP Meeting I was able to get his spelling words reduced from 15 to 10 and he only has to write them 3 times each instead of 5. Unfortunately it was revealed that he is not getting the requried 30 minutes daily of SPED assistance that is required by his current IEP and that they were not providing him with a checklist for completed tasks. Can you say VIOLATION OF THE IEP. Looks like we are going to have to talk to the school board about this and if I don't get any results there I will have to go to the VA Board of Education.

I think the saddest thing here is that he has a teacher that doesn't want to do crap for him (yes she is the inclusion class teacher). She got mad when I brought up the checkoff list and said "well is that something I have to do." My response was "I believe so since you are the one who has your schedule of tasks for your class." Seriously if you don't want to help children they why are you a teacher....especially an inclusion class teacher.

Well we got some things changed for the better and will be having a BIP meeting soon but there is a lot that still needs to be done and it is very difficult when you have a teacher that is not on board.