In So Many Words

Title: Behavior Solutions for the Inclusive Classroom
Author: Beth Aune, OTR/L, Beth Burt & Peter Gennaro
Length: 151 pages
Genre: Nonfiction
Publisher/Date: Future Horizons, 2010
Source: Review copy

See A Behavior, Look It Up

Behavior Solutions for the Inclusive Classroom is a great new resource for teachers who are attempting to provide a positive learning environment for ALL students, including those with challenging behaviors. The team of authors behind this book includes an Occupational Therapist, a Director of Special Education, and a Parent/Advocate, thus providing a well-rounded look at the issues and the solutions that can arise in a general education setting.

The premise of Behavior Solutions is that teachers need a convenient resource so that when they see a behavior occurring in their classroom, they can look it up and quickly find several possible solutions that may help them get through a particular situation and continue on with the regular agenda of the day.

Forty of the most commonly observed behaviors are listed, organized into four main sections:

1. Movement Issues
2. Avoidance and Retreat Behaviors
3. Difficulty with Routine and Academics
4. Social-Emotional Issues

The book includes a detailed table of contents and comprehensive index for ease in locating specific behaviors easily, and there are also appendices with more information on movement breaks/goal-directed tasks, sensory input devices, and calming techniques. An additional resources list provides direction to those who wish to learn more about responding to the needs of students with a variety of educational challenges.

One very nice feature of this book is that the authors work to educate the readers (who presumably have not had a lot of background in special education) about the rationale for the suggested solutions without overwhelming them with too much information.

For example, under the behavior of “Chewing on Shirt or Other Inappropriate Items,” which is in the Movement Issues section, they offer solutions such as providing certain types of food to eat instead, allowing the student to drink from a water bottle with a large plastic straw, or giving a younger child something like a Chewy Tube. Then they go on to explain:

The key here is to replace the socially unacceptable behavior of chewing on shirts (or pencils) with chewing on objects that are less likely to stigmatize the student. As educators, we must not let established policy be a substitute for wise and successful decision-making. . . . Remember, educators have greater decision-making control than the students whose disability causes inappropriate behaviors.

I think this would be the perfect book to give your child’s regular classroom teacher or aide. It is a great size and extremely easy to navigate through on the fly. There are also a lot of helpful ideas that parents could implement when overseeing homework or involving the child in other structured activities within the community.

For more information or to order a copy for yourself, visit Future Horizons online store.

Sorry I haven’t written much this week. I have been preoccupied with a few things, including a major car repair that I need to get scheduled and a letter I need to write to Michael’s IEP case manager with several concerns regarding implementation of the existing items and discussion of some new ones.

I know what I want to say but I am stuck on how to say it in the best way to get results. Unfortunately, that can sometimes lead to procrastination, which in turn affects all the other things I need to get done as well. Quite the vicious circle!

It’s posts like these that give me the strength to gird my loins again and write the first draft of the letter.

The Inclusion Dance by Susan Etlinger

It’s official: I’m a bitch. By which I mean I’ve moved past that initial flush of optimism and teamwork and wanting everyone to feel good about themselves to disappointment, confrontation, detente, anger and now — inevitably — relentlessness.

F-Word Series: Fortitude by Mom-Blog

Your mental and emotional strength lies in your ability to STAY there, after your fit or break down, or Dove-choco-fest. To push away the bad thoughts and take your kids to the park or the beach or the birthday party or bowling. To, even a for a moment, damn the despair and find gratitude for this family of yours.

I’ve read a lot more great posts over the last couple of weeks, but frankly I am so tired (I’ve also been giving rides to someone, which has cut into my schedule as well) that I’m just going to share these two today.

Sunday Best is usually a collection of links to blog posts that really touched me over the past week or other online resources that I felt were important to share with others. This week, for some reason, I only bookmarked this one link (I know I read a lot of great posts, but this is what really stood out for me).

Special Needs Ministry

Podcast #1 – Your Church & Children With Special Needs – The folks at ministry-to-children.com have started a podcast and for their first one, interviewed Amy Fenton Lee from The Inclusive Church (who was recently interviewed in print here). It was great for me to put a voice to the person, and I would recommend this podcast to anyone who is involved in any way in children’s ministry.

Some Thoughts on Inclusion

I spend so much time thinking about inclusion as it relates to school. And, although I agree with his placement in the regular classroom, I feel guilty about how hard it is sometimes for him to be in that environment all day. Part of my feelings stem from the fact that he doesn’t have a lot of other socialization with peers in other environments and I don’t want school to be his only measure of what it’s like.

I mean, we do have playdates from time to time, but that can be hard to arrange given everyone’s schedules and other commitments. Sports is just not an option; we’ve tried that numerous times. He has both OT and playgroup weekly, both of which are special needs environments. At church, he greatly prefers the special needs room to the regular children’s activities, and I don’t press him because the buddies available haven’t had success in supporting him in that environment, so I would have to do it myself.

Last week, a paper came home from school about Cub Scouts and Michael expressed an interest in going. He had mentioned it late last spring, and I hadn’t followed up on it at the time, so this time I decided to look into it a little bit more. I spoke with the person in charge of our local pack and we are going to the informational meeting on Tuesday night. I am feeling quite hopeful about it, as the sense I got was that they just deal with each child individually and that this might be a good opportunity for Michael to feel that he is an equal part of something with his own contributions and achievements.

Then this weekend, we didn’t make it to church on Saturday night and I had the idea to visit a church that is very close to our house that has a large children’s ministry. We have been there several times over the last 15 years that we have lived here, but Michael had only ever been in the preschool room before.

So I took him there this morning and spoke with the leader before the service to explain our situation and apologize for not calling ahead. The 1st-5th grade is all together this month, so he suggested I just check in a few times to see how things were going. Michael did pretty well, and, even more importantly, he loved it!

It was so amazing to get in the car after the service and hear him explaining to me about how being spoiled isn’t so much about how much stuff you have, but it’s about your heart and being spoiled or blessed in your heart. (I’m not saying he wouldn’t learn awesome stuff like this at our home church, just that it’s so much harder to get him in the class to learn it.)

This has been a bit of a ramble, I know, so thanks for listening. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you find ways to include your child that work for them.

Well, not 40 exactly if you take out the days they have off, but that’s the number of weeks until the last day of school.

It’s not a terribly good sign that I’m already counting it down, is it? Hopefully, we will have more days where Michael feels like he did on the first day:

For those of you who read this blog, you have already heard my frustration over the number of supports that were not ready when school started and the number of hours of non-participation Michael had this week due to not calming down from an upset.

In fact, I have already started looking into some alternatives in case we get to a point in the future where we are not comfortable keeping him in this environment, although I am committed right now to fighting for what he needs to continue being successfully included in our neighborhood school.

I live in a constant struggle between my firm belief that our school needs to be held accountable to build the capacity to educate all students and to fully include and support them in a meaningful way and my parental responsibility to not allow my son to be broken down and made to feel unwanted and uncared for by those in charge of him for a large portion of his day.

Prayers for peace for all of us and favor for me as I continue to dialogue with the team are welcome!

What a great start to the conference! I didn’t get to type up all of my notes because of a special film screening they did last night, but it was awesome.

First of all, the attendance was down from 2500 to 1700, which made it much easier to get around. They are doing a lot more web streaming, which they believe is part of the reason for the attendance change, so it is not necessarily a bad thing.

The opening speakers were wonderful, and the research symposium I chose turned out to be perfect. I could actually apply a lot of the afternoon information to my job (hmmm, maybe I should try to put those 3 hours on my time sheet!)

Last night, we had the opportunity to see a film called Including Samuel by Dan Habib. Dan has an extensive career in photojournalism and used that in this documentary that focuses on the full inclusion of his son with cerebral palsy into the school and the community.

The film goes far beyond just their son’s story, however; Dan profiles several other individuals of different ages, diagnoses and backgrounds to examine the issue of inclusion from a variety of angles. You can watch the trailer and get information about showings (or how to host a showing) on www.includingsamuel.com.

I’ll definitely be writing in more detail about what I’m learning. Right now I’m off to Day 2!

Monday night, Michael had his first group therapy session with the psychologist. We arrived a few minutes late, but luckily the three other boys were still in the waiting room playing with Legos.

Michael was very excited to be meeting other boys who, in his words, “think like me and are my same age too.” Makes me wonder why we all push so hard for inclusion with typical peers all the time.

Now, I’m not saying anything against inclusion—we all live in this world and need to work together and help each other—I’m just saying it doesn’t seem like a bad thing to seek opportunities to be with people who are similar to you. After all, isn’t that what we all do? We visit different churches to find the one that fits our style; we try to find common ground with people we meet to see if they have the same views or background or even hobbies.

Ideally, he can begin to have these opportunities not just as part of a therapy session, but as part of his everyday life. That reminds me, I need to email the mom of the boy he met at the last ASA meeting to arrange a playdate.

As an update to my frustration with the increasing meltdowns, the psychologist suggested that I may actually need to keep a tighter rein on the schedule and freedoms at home and to make sure I am giving clear and immediate feedback on both good and bad behavior. I have been somewhat relaxed at home, thinking this will allow him to focus more when he is at school, but it appears to be backfiring on me.

…then head on over to 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

After posting a picture from Michael’s first soccer practice for Special Exposure Wednesday this week, I started thinking about how thankful I am for the opportunity for such a great introduction to organized sports for him. Thanks, Lower Dauphin Soccer Association!