Open House at Tigger's School

JJJ

Active Member
I got to meet with Tigger's teacher and see the books she is using with him this year.

We came up with a few strategies that she is going to try in the next week or so to see if we can lower his anxiety.

He has been complaining about how loud the school is and how one of his classmates crying feels like knives in his ears.
She is going to request noise canceling headphones for him to use.

He has been having perfect days behaviorally until around noon. We compared all of his charts and realized that his behavior falls apart right after his gym/art time with the regular ed class, continues to be poor through lunch/recess with the regular ed class and recovers after he has been in the sped room again for 20-30 minutes.
She is going to set up an alternative activity for him to do during gym/art (just a 1:1 with an admin staff or other 'fun' adult).

After a few days, we are going to see if that helps. This could all be sensory overload and anxiety. (Of course, with the larger room there is a lot more peer conflict and it is taking the form of threats to beat each other up. Tigger keeps asking her what happens if he HAS to fight cause there isn't staff there to protect him :( -- he so clearly feels unsafe there. He is safe there but he wasn't in previous years.)

His goal remains the Learning Disability (LD)/EMH room at our local junior high. Let's all keep our fingers crossed and say some prayers!!
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Sounds like a good plan and good staff working with you and Tigger. I can remember how hard it was to work when it was really loud at school. My mom always described it as not having filters in the brain to tune out the extraneous noise. She had it a lot, and in fact we both experience it as adults. Noise cancelling headphones are AWESOME - truly an incredible gift, at least for me.

You may find that Tigger gets a lot of benefit from the noise cancelling headphones at home. I have tried the ear bud type and the ones that fit over the ear. Over the ear works much better, but the in-ear type might be helpful if he has to do recess or whatever. They look a lot more "cool".

I hope he can start to feel safe at school sometime soon!
 

JJJ

Active Member
Of course, with the larger room there is a lot more peer conflict and it is taking the form of threats to beat each other up. Tigger keeps asking her what happens if he HAS to fight cause there isn't staff there to protect him :( -- he so clearly feels unsafe there. He is safe there but he wasn't in previous years.)

I spoke with Tigger this morning. He is definitely scared of getting punched at school. This is not good as he will hit first if he feels that is his only chance to avoid getting seriously beat. I'm praying the teacher stays on top of this. I really want him in the Learning Disability (LD)/EMH room and getting in a physical fight at school may end that dream.
 
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