Bizarre Impulses

On Friday, Jane was having a hard time. Her pencil was not sharp enough to write with. When she was given a new sharp pencil, it was somehow too sharp. She screamed AHHHHHHHHHHH ITS TOO SHARP and stabbed her self in the hand with it. Blood was all over her writing assignment. I can't imagine feeling the need to stab your self just because something is sharp. The other children are afraid of her. To be honest, I used to be afraid of her until I started working with her daily. Now I understand that most of her behaviors are a result of her anxiety and I can reassure her that I am here to help her. This reassurance calms her a bit.

Today (and almost any given day), Andrew was sitting on the floor listening to a story, he turned around quickly to no one and started screaming Patsy Cline's "Crazy" someday he will burst into "Cry Me a Wiver (River)" or "I'm a Joker, I'm a Smoker, I'm a midnight Toker". The children in his class no longer even react when he breaks into song, it is very amazing.

Mahesh has been in isolation for uncontrollable behavior including hiding a pencil in his shorts then stabbing his teacher in the back with it as she walked down the hall. He has not been allowed out for recess because he is endangering other children, so I have been giving him a private boot camp to give him exercise and to let him know that he is not in charge. Today, I was going to have him walk up and down the stairs 20 times but at 19 times he started refusing, so I told him that no was the wrong answer and he had to do 11 more, he said no again which was the wrong answer, so he had to eat lunch in isolation. At the beginning of each step from there on he said" Yes is the right answer I will do it again". This I could not believe after seeing so much Oppositional Defiance from him. He then did 20 wall push ups and marching in place for 2 minutes. When he went into the regular ed room with his special ed teacher closely supervising, he told her that he was going to do the right thing so he can make her happy! Progress was made, hopefully he won't have to work in an isolation box for much longer.