ASLteacher
New Member
Not sure if this board is the right place to come for help, but I figured you all are going through this every day, too. Please let me know if i am out of line posting here. I teach deaf and hard-of hearing kids, 2nd and 3rd grade, and I have never come across a kiddo like TL. I got him last march as a transfer student. He had just been (officially) identified with a hearing loss, and had been in a class for MH kids (multiply handicapped) because of his behavioral and learning problems. He was diagnosed with ODD and early trauma. They told me he had some behavior problems, and that some one would be coming out to talk to me about him. Fast forward a year...he has decided that he is not deaf, and refuses to wear his hearing aids. He has fairly functional hearing in one ear and is almost totally deaf in the other. He can get about 80% of what is said without aids. He is constantly disrupting the class (8 kids, each with severe learning/language delays). He hits, kicks, steals, lies, walks out of the classroom, screams, swears, flicks people off, tattles, disobeys, intentionally irritates, targets certain kids, obsesses over certain girls...and SO many other things. He is 8, and mom is 21. I get little support from her or from my SD with this kid, and I am with him for the better part of 8 hours. His home life is chaotic and unsupportive for him. I hate calling home to tell them what happens at school, because he gets "whooped". I have a feeling there is criminal activity going on in the home. I have called, and e-mailed my supervisor multiple times with No results other than "try a schedule and a behavior chart". Done and done, and NOTHING. I've tried peer pressure, being nice, calm, and understanding, bribes, threats, rewards, incentives, notes home (good and bad, but the bad ones are usually found crumpled up on the bus) a "safe" spot for him to cool down, behavior plan, teaching him to verbalize his feelings. He is functionaing socially and academically at about a 4-yo level. I was "stood up" by the behavioral specialist last week, and so I sent a nastygram to her today, along with my supervisor stating, "I NEED help!" I have one other behavioral specialist coming in every so often for a half an hour or so, but I keep telling them that I need an aid or someone in there with him one on one to keep him focused so I can attend to the other kids in my class. Deafness is not his major issue and I'm really frustrated that they are refusing to acknowledge that he is in the wrong place. I firmly believe that he needs to be somewhere where they can really focus (and have been trained to focus) on behavior. The only thing I have going for me is that he likes me, and we have a good rapport when he is not in ODD mode. I am so frustrated. He is affecting my home life, because after battling him over every single little thing, I get to come home to my mostly easy child, and have to be the attentive mom and wife when I just want to crawl into bed and cry. I am short with my other students, my classroom is a mess, because he tears through things like a bull in a china shop, my lesson plans are almost non existent because no matter what I have planned, it ends up taking three times as long when he is there, because I am constantly redirecting or correcting his behavior. I am so extremely frustrated both with this child and with my SD, that I am really considering a change of careers. Any suggestions or sympathizers would be greatly appreciated. by the way, our school psychiatric also suspects ADHD, but TL is currently on no medications at all...I could go on and on, but I'm exhausted. -nite