To Melinda re behavior plans

[Guest guest]

Dear Melinda:

On 6/2/03 5:42 PM, you wrote:

> The sped teacher gave me

> too different types of suggestions: one was writing a

> frequent break system into his IEP. (i.e. a ticket

> system-can only use so many tickets a day or morning,

> and then afternoon, etc. Some type of system/code to

> let the teacher know he needs a break. And a behavior

> plan regarding choices and consequences. She gave as

> an example 1st offense-warning. 2nd offense-2nd chance

> room; 3rd offense-?; 4th offense-he has to call me and

> tell me what he has done.

The first suggestion is one I don't quite understand. Is supposed to

give the teacher a ticket when he knows he needs a break? I don't think

this will work unless he is very self-aware. What worked better for us (and

you need a really experienced teacher for this) is for the TEACHER to notice

when he needs a break, and figure out some inconspicuous way to give it to

him. Owen's wonderful 5th grade teacher used to send him to the office with

a message -- just to give him a chance to walk around and feel responsible

for something important at the same time. If the burden is on to

figure out when he needs a break, chances are he will sometimes " blow up " in

a stressful situation before remembering to hand the teacher a ticket.

The second strategy your sped teacher mentioned probably won't work for two

reasons: first, it again puts the burden on the child to AVOID certain

behaviors, instead of rewarding him for doing something POSITIVE; and

secondly, it relies on punishment to motivate him, instead of praise or

another positive reinforcer. To use a metaphor, it uses a stick, or several

sticks, instead of carrots to get him to go forward. The biggest stick is

telling him that when he misbehaves really badly, he has to call you and

tell you what he has done! What about the teacher? Does she have to call

you every time she makes a mistake that causes him to have a meltdown? I

seriously doubt it. This system is definitely stacked against the child!

When Owen was in elementary and middle school, teachers tried many different

kinds of behavior modification plans with him, and the only ones that worked

were the ones that promised him a reward when he did the right thing, not a

punishment when he did the wrong thing. For example, in 8th grade, he was

given a list of six desirable behaviors to use in every class: things like

taking out books and other materials needed for that class, turning in

homework, sitting quietly in his seat, keeping hands to himself, and so on.

At the end of each class he was supposed to go to the teacher and get him or

her to initial a chart, after awarding him a certain number of points: 2 if

he did everything right, 1 if he did some things right, and 0 if he

seriously disrupted the class or did something very rude. He got very few

zeroes, luckily! If at the end of the day he had 8 points (out of a

possible 12) he would get a reward when he got home: being allowed to play

computer games. Notice he didn't have to be perfect, just behave pretty

well in most of his classes. So there was a reasonable chance he would be

able to earn his reward. If he had five " good " days in a row, he would get

a big reward, like a new book or computer game. I know this sounds

expensive, but if you adopt this system, you can think of rewards he will

enjoy that don't cost so much. Anyway, the system worked very well from the

start. Even on days when he didn't get enough points to be able to play

computer games at home, he didn't protest, because he understood the rules

and the system made sense to him. Part of the reason it worked was that he

knew all the teachers were pulling FOR him, instead of watching him like

hawks waiting for him to misbehave. Earlier systems we tried in elementary

school, where he got a point taken off every time he misbehaved, weren't

effective at all. After a certain number of points had been lost, he

figured he had blown his chances for that day, so he might as well do

whatever he liked.

I'm not saying you should adopt a system exactly like this for ,

because every child is different, and you know better than I do what would

motivate him. But the general principle that rewards work better than

punishment is one that I would try to get across to the people at your

school. Any system that relies on embarrassing the child to get him to

behave is doomed to failure, in my humble opinion.

Good luck with your meeting, Melinda! With all the thinking and work you

have done, you deserve the respect and cooperation of the other people on

the IEP team. Remember, you're an equal partner with them (actually, a more

than equal partner) in making decisions that affect your child. If you

don't agree with something they say, it's perfectly all right to say so (in

a civil manner, of course) and to say you need to think about any provisions

they suggest for his IEP before you sign it.

Jill

[Guest guest]

At the end of each class he was supposed to go to the teacher and get

him or

> her to initial a chart, after awarding him a certain number of

points: 2 if

> he did everything right, 1 if he did some things right, and 0 if he

> seriously disrupted the class or did something very rude. He got

very few

> zeroes, luckily! If at the end of the day he had 8 points (out of a

> possible 12) he would get a reward when he got home: being allowed

to play

> computer games. Notice he didn't have to be perfect, just behave

pretty

> well in most of his classes. So there was a reasonable chance he

would be

> able to earn his reward. If he had five " good " days in a row, he

would get

> a big reward, like a new book or computer game. I know this sounds

> expensive, but if you adopt this system, you can think of rewards

he will

> enjoy that don't cost so much. Anyway, the system worked very well

from the

> start. Even on days when he didn't get enough points to be able to

play

> computer games at home, he didn't protest, because he understood

the rules

> and the system made sense to him. Part of the reason it worked was

that he

> knew all the teachers were pulling FOR him, instead of watching him

like

> hawks waiting for him to misbehave. Earlier systems we tried in

elementary

> school, where he got a point taken off every time he misbehaved,

weren't

> effective at all. After a certain number of points had been lost,

he

> figured he had blown his chances for that day, so he might as well

do

> whatever he liked.

> I'm not saying you should adopt a system exactly like this for

,

> because every child is different, and you know better than I do

what would

> motivate him. But the general principle that rewards work better

than

> punishment is one that I would try to get across to the people at

your

> school. Any system that relies on embarrassing the child to get

him to

> behave is doomed to failure, in my humble opinion.

I totally agree that the positive behavior plan is vastly superior to

the punitive. Unfortunately, we had a chart plan similar to this one

with Braden this year and it didn't work too long. Sadly, the

teachers managed to turn a positive into a negative. And Braden

didn't help matters either. LOL! The teacher called me early on and

told me that he refused to bring the chart to class because he got a

bad score in an early class. I told her that this was to be his

decision. If he refused to do the chart than he wouldn't be

rewarded. She wanted me to have a consequence for not bringing it

home and I told her no - that I had enough battles with him and I was

definitely not going to turn a positive behavior chart into a

negative. However, I one thing that was clear in the FBA was that the

teacher used the chart as a power struggle. She gave Braden a bad

score and he tossed it in the trash. She made him take it out. I

nixed the behavior chart completely. It was only giving him reasons

to get upset and giving the teacher one more thing to fight with him

over. But, every child is different. Braden is a really hard kid to

motivate.

One thing I read in an excellent book called " Taming the Tiger " was

to make sure, if you use a positive behavior plan with rewards, that

you change the rewards frequently because the rewards will lose their

power to motivate quickly. This is definitely true for Braden.

Kathy

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 6/3/03 9:46:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

mlndhall@... writes:

> Now I'm sure he's afraid to go there for fear

> that we will get in trouble. So then that becomes too

> many bathroom breaks and then he gets in trouble for

> doing that too many times and I get a concerned phone

> call from the teacher wondering if there is a bladder

> infection or possible diabetes. And so on.

>

ugh, I remember this and that is exactly what would happen with my ds if it

was handled that way also.

You might call the middle school counselor or psych to discuss past problems

and kind of put them " on notice " for coming up with ideas to work with this

stuff. They *might* take it upon themselves to become educated about ASD and

help you a lot. They also might not care and blow you off. But it's a chance

and you can't know until you try. Perhaps get them a copy of a good book on

ASD to read over the summer or next fall, whenever you meet them.

At our middle school, the counselor was at my first " get to know you " meeting

and when I described the kinds of problems my ds was likely to have, she just

kept saying, " OH, all kids have that problem " and then, " Well, this is middle

school! He'll have to start taking responsibility for these things... " So I

knew from the start not to ask her for help and she proved to be unhelpful

the last 3 years. She eventually stopped coming to my IEP meetings, which did

not bother me at all.

BUT, you might find someone who is interested in doing their job! And this

person could be such an asset to you.

Another good idea is to pay attention to area conferences on autism and

always let 's teachers, sped teacher, principal etc., know about them and

encourage them to go to these things. They are responsible for knowing about

autism and how to work with via the law and going to these conferences

would be up that alley for them. I've told people about conferences here in our

area and pleasantly was surprised when some of them actually attended! Just

keep telling them about this stuff and smile a lot and if they don't attend,

send them an outline from your attendance.

Roxanna ö¿ö

" ...don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he'd

ever wished for...

He lived happily ever after. "

Willy Wonka