JJJ
Active Member
husband and I went up to Kanga's Residential Treatment Center (RTC) yesterday to celebrate Christmas with her. It started out well with a successful IEP meeting. We were very pleased with the Special Education Coop staff (the school staff seems confused by IEPs despite it being a Special Education school) but the Coop staff ran the meeting and it went very well.
Then we drove 30 minutes to a nursing home to hear the school choir sing. Kanga knew most of the words to the songs and sang and danced with the other kids. She completely avoided eye contact with the audience (sign that she's not real stable).
As soon as Kanga got back to school we took her to celebrate Christmas in one of the family homes at the Residential Treatment Center (RTC). She was very happy to give us the presents she had made. Then she opened all of hers, showing appropriate excitement and saying thank you when prompted.
After that it started to go downhill, she became sullen and quit talking. She picked at her food (we brought a full turkey dinner). She asked us to leave. At that point we'd been with her just under an hour. We were able to have family therapy start early.
I think family therapy went very well. Kanga was disrespectful, contradicted herself, confirmed that the voices are actively speaking against us, threatened to shoot her brother with a gun, etc. etc. While I disliked being called a b**** and hearing how horribly angry she still is and that she still wants to be violent, I was glad that the therapist was able to witness it all. The therapist even commented that husband and I were remaining totally calm and respectful of Kanga even as she became more obnoxious. She told Kanga that she needs to own her problems and her anger.
I'm really liking this therapist. I think she has a chance of reaching Kanga. Of course, Kanga has to want peace rather than chaos.
The other 3 were with my mom all day. She reported A+ behavior and has volunteered to babysit again on Friday night because she had such a great time!!!
Then we drove 30 minutes to a nursing home to hear the school choir sing. Kanga knew most of the words to the songs and sang and danced with the other kids. She completely avoided eye contact with the audience (sign that she's not real stable).
As soon as Kanga got back to school we took her to celebrate Christmas in one of the family homes at the Residential Treatment Center (RTC). She was very happy to give us the presents she had made. Then she opened all of hers, showing appropriate excitement and saying thank you when prompted.
After that it started to go downhill, she became sullen and quit talking. She picked at her food (we brought a full turkey dinner). She asked us to leave. At that point we'd been with her just under an hour. We were able to have family therapy start early.
I think family therapy went very well. Kanga was disrespectful, contradicted herself, confirmed that the voices are actively speaking against us, threatened to shoot her brother with a gun, etc. etc. While I disliked being called a b**** and hearing how horribly angry she still is and that she still wants to be violent, I was glad that the therapist was able to witness it all. The therapist even commented that husband and I were remaining totally calm and respectful of Kanga even as she became more obnoxious. She told Kanga that she needs to own her problems and her anger.
I'm really liking this therapist. I think she has a chance of reaching Kanga. Of course, Kanga has to want peace rather than chaos.
The other 3 were with my mom all day. She reported A+ behavior and has volunteered to babysit again on Friday night because she had such a great time!!!
