83. From Top Dog to Throw Down

Sean's first grade year was full of trial and error. Ms. Wright, Ms. Hughes, Ms. Murray and Ms. Lee, his first grade mainstream teacher, were all about trying to get a handle on his fit pitching. Leli (Ms. Wright) and I kept a daily journal so we could look for patterns in behavior. We saw a pattern alright! A disturbing pattern of behavior that seemed to never get better. He pitched fits constantly. One typical entry went something like this:

From Lelie:

January 12, 2002

Peggy, "Sean was "Top Dog" and "King" today. He took the lunchroom count to the lunchroom all by himself w/ Marjorie. He actually wore the crown too. We have had a pretty rough day - two big fits. He would not work at all today. He has been real defiant. In his first fit he was throwing things, hurting himself, hitting me, then he started crying and fell asleep in the middle of his cry. He was out about five minutes and woke up and said, "I hurt Mama's boy - sit down, now." He wanted to sit in the chair he threw. This was one of the worst fits I have seen. Then in gym, he threw another fit. Ms. Lee and I had to put him in the bathroom. He was kicking then too - Ms. Lee this time..." ~Lelie

March 18, 2002

Peggy, We had a wonderful morning. I have tried something new - take Sean in the resource room to do work, the he can go in Ms. Lee's room after he gets started. It worked great! He did so much work.

We had a small problem - in gym today, Sean obviously did not like what the other kids were doing and he ran away. When I went to get him, he kicked me and broke my toenail in half, split down the middle and it has bled all day. Pat made me go to the doctor to make sure it was not broken. He said it was just nerve damage in my nail bed and would be okay in a few weeks. He (Sean) has been very apologetic and always tries to see it. Maybe now that he has seen the blood and the tears he'll stop this now. Hope so - have a great afternoon. ~Lelie.

Lelie had her work cut out for her but she was beginning to get creative with Sean's schedule and understand that the stimuli had to be limited in order to get him to work. The idea of mainstreaming and placing a child in the "least restrictive environment" is ideal but only if it works for the child. In Sean's case, the fits indicated that he wasn't quite ready.