The last week in school has been hard work to say the least. Boy Wonder made it very clear that he didn't want to be there and made it very difficult for me to leave him, averaging half an hour of negotiations each day just to stop him running out of the door.
Although Boy Wonder managed a full week without exclusion, it was by the skin of his teeth. There were many a challenge faced with refusal, defiance and aggression and although these are clearly surface level descriptions of the real anxiety difficulties , this appeared to be the mindset of the exhausted support circle.
Collecting from school became equally as complicated as it became impossible to make a quick exit due to Boy Wonder running wild, without shoes around the classroom and even the school. Classroom semi trashed, items thrown and tables used as a race track were some of the displays of manic behaviour, resulting in meltdown each time. After an hour of leaving school however, Boy Wonder calmed and regained composure.
To say that I feel physically exhausted would be an understatement. Just getting to and from school each day proved to be a strenuous workout. Cat Girl, however became more and more emotional due to witnessing the torment that Boy Wonder was going through and his outbursts of anger. We had a good talk about why Boy Wonder is like he is and that nothing he says or does is personal. The bear hugs are the biggest problem as he is a very strong little boy and although he is doing it for sensory feedback rather than anger, being squeezed within an inch of your life is not pleasant!
On Thursday Boy Wonder had his follow up appointment with the Consultant. He has put on 4kg in a month and grown 1cm. As he is also sleeping better, eating well and is generally more settled at home without the anger explosions, she decided that the positives of being off of the medication at present outweighed the negatives. Therefore no medication has been added and he is being reviewed again in the New Year. We are in full agreement with this as school aside, he is coping remarkably well with strategies alone.
We had a visit to a school with an autism unit on Friday morning which was initially just a 'going through the motions' exercise as there is no space. However, the Head certainly knew his stuff, the resource area was just what he needs and it is as inclusive or as segregated as it needs to be for the child. There are also children at the school who Boy Wonder knows through his drama group so a ready made friendship circle. Although there is still no space, Boy Wonder could access the school through mainstream provision and make full use of the facilities. A strong contender!
In the afternoon we had a lengthly meeting at school to discuss the Multi Element Plan which unpicks 'behaviour' and reactions to the school day. Although we have not previously seen eye to eye with the ed psych, he did talk a lot of sense and did a very good job of identifying the triggers and hot spots. Obviously it wasn't anything that we hadn't already identified but for once the words were spoken by the local authority and we just nodded in agreement. The meeting concluded with a decision to remove all pressure from Boy Wonder and opt for a1:1 out of the classroom approach to try and build bridges and improve his negative thoughts about the school day. We left them to discuss the finer points of this, the main one being space to do it.
We collected the children from school and had a fairly settled exit and evening. The last day before the holidays effect should be bottled!
No comments:
Post a Comment