Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Ask for drama...

I should seriously be careful what I ask for.

Lion has extremely stunted social skills due to the PDD-NOS.

He just doesn't get how to interact with other kids.
His coping skill is that he mimics PJ and the other kids around him.
Monkey see, monkey do.
For the most part it works out well for him except when it doesn't.
Lion does not understand how to read people and their emotions or reactions to his actions. He also doesn't understand the consequences of his actions. When you tell or tell him no or punish him it does not click or connect.
I can't explain it but you can see it not making sense. Since his diagnosis I've tried to come up with an analogy for it and the best I can find is that it's like reprimanding or punishing a pet.
They hear you, they see your facial expressions and the tone of your voice but never quite connect it back to what it was they did wrong and they never quite understand exactly what you are blathering on about.
I have worked really hard with him on what is and isn't appropriate behavior but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt he does not retain what I tell him.
It just doesn't sink in.
He knows how to mimic the proper response to bad behavor which in our house is a hug and the words "I'm sorry".
I know you can discipline him a million times for the same issue and he's never going to make the connection.
The only thing you can do is keep disciplining each and every time and attempt catch the infraction prior to it being committed.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....
today Lion's teacher tells me that two days in a row there have been incidences with Lionduring recess in the gym.
Yesterday for no reason at all he walked up to a little girl in another class (who his teacher doesn't think he's ever had interaction with prior) and he pushed her.Hard. She fell hard and when she went down she bit off a chunk of her tongue.
Today his teacher said he threw a ball it went in one direction he watched it and then ran over to the same little girl and hit her. (I had to stop typing so I could put my head in my hands for a second)
He's also been slapping the kids in his class across the face.

She said she wanted to give me the heads up because the office was most likely going to call me.

I want to cry. I want to just break down.
We worked so hard to matriculate him in a main stream classroom. He was doing really well.
Not fitting in exactly but holding his own on his own and figuring it all out.
Now this. Hitting is not unusual for Lion. Neither is throwing or lashing out. I thought that up to this point though it has been very minimal at school.

I'm going to talk to his teacher tomorrow morning and get the full scoop on exactly what the magnitude of his violent outbursts are and the frequency.

I'm concerned that the school is going to react by attempting to put him in a special needs class.

Tomorrow is going to be a morning of running from office to office to attempt damage control and to ask for help (again) from his ABA therapist.

By law they can't tell me who the child is that he's hurt but I'm going to bake them cookies tonight with a note explaining Lion and apologize for his behavior.

I'll ask his teacher or the office to deliver it.

I feel so badly for that poor little girl. She must be so confused and hurt as to why twice she's been attacked and hurt completely unprovoked.

If ANY humor is to be found in this at all as his teacher is telling me this I'm squatting down to zip his coat and he open handed slapped me hard across the face. Unprovoked and unapologetic.
Perfect timing kiddo...

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