collin at school

[suzette248]

My child is 13 years old and is autisc,ad/hd and hyper, He is having many issues in his new school biting his arm, kicking ,hiting,and property damage to name a few , What can I give collin to slow him down that is safe .?

[Sally44]

I think the key is the fact that this is a new school for your son.  Those on the spectrum have great difficulties with change in general and changes to routine.  A new school means that everything has changed.  All the teachers/pupils are different, taught in different classrooms, with a different timetable and different curriculum subjects, with different food at dinnertime, with different supports or strategies (or none at all) being used.  Infact you couldn't change his situation any more if you tried!
I presume he is in a special school?  
It maybe that he will need visual supports and a very high amount of structure and explicit teaching to help him adjust to this change in routine.  Once it is at a level where he is coping, with time, they can gradually reduce the level of support - but for now it may mean supporting him at a level that he required when he was much younger.  By that I don't mean they do everything for him.  I mean that everything is highly structured and visually presented and broken down into small manageable chunks, and that he has one key nominated worker so that the person helping him is not changing all the time.  If he is finding the new school environment difficult to cope with the school needs to look at it to make sure it is low arousal.  He might benefit from a booket with a picture of each classroom and the teacher/teaching assistants in that class.  He may need alot of extra input from the Speech Therapist to help him learn the names of his teacher and some of the pupils.  He may need alot of extra support during playtimes and dinnertimes.
From his point of view, it must be like he has just been dropped onto an alien planet.  Everything he knew at his previous school no longer applies.  He is starting from ground zero again because he doesn't have the language or social skills that we have that help us adapt to a new environment such as a change in school or workplace.
And follow the advice of the expert as above.

[Rachel Thompson, Ph.D., BCBA]

It is unlikely that medication alone will resolve the behavioral issues that you have described. In addition, all medications have some risk of serious side effects. So, it is important to seriously consider alternatives to medication. I strongly recommend that you seek the assistance of a Board Certified Behavior Analyst who would be able to work with you and the school to be sure that your son has the support he needs to succeed. A large body of research suggest that behavioral interventions are highly successful with the type of behavior difficulties that you described. Even if your son eventually requires medication, medication should be used in the context of appropriate educational and behavioral interventions. In addition, it will be important for you and your son's school to track his behavior in such a way that you would be able to evaluate whether medicaiton is effective. A registry of Certified Behavior Analysts is available at the website of the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (bacb.com).

[Sally44]

You know your son better than anyone.  You are his advocate.  If you have a strong feeling about how they should approach this escalation in behaviours, put it in writing to the school.  If they don't do that you have evidence that they have'nt listened to your advice.  If you feel that they are not providing the level of support your son needs and you are hitting your head against a brick wall, you can find a legal advocate who has experience of special educatioinal needs law and it might be worthwile to pay for a couple of hours of advice to see how you can move this situation forward.

[suzette248]

Thank you, your advice is very helpful; I needed to here this from someone out side our usual circles.  It seems that we know what our child can and can not do. Many of the professionals don’t want to believe you until they can verify it, by that time many precious days have been lost.

Once again thank you, I will try to post some pictures of Collin, having camera problems!