partial hospitalization

[ciounoi]

Hi there,

I posted a few months here about getting a job teaching in juvenile detention for a few months and got some good responses! That job ended in December (and went very well) and there's a possibility that I might get a temporary job in a middle school partial hospitalization classroom later this year. I was wondering if there was any advice, tips, warnings, etc, you could give me about this type of classroom - I'm sure you all have lots of experience!

Thanks so much,
ciounoi

 

[susiestar]

I am glad things went well. It is nice to see someone who wants to get info from us. I don't have specific advice, but if you have not read "The Explosive Child" by Ross Greene and "What Your Explosive Child is Trying to Tell You" by Doug Riley, they will be excellent resources for you.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Ross Greene also has the book "Lost in School". It is the same information as The Explosive Child, but presents it from a school perspective... if you don't already have The Explosive Child, you might want to get Lost In School.

 

[buddy]

I would also say to read Lost in School and remember that many kids who are put in these programs do not fit the mold that they create for their program structure. If the program is mainly a mental health program, and there are kids who come in with developmental delays or autism or Aspergers.... realize it takes a very different kind of teaching approach for some of them. They can become worse on typical EBD behavioral programs and do not learn as well without very direct teaching approaches. Kids with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) or brain injury may have serious memory issues etc... just good to really do research into their histories (sometimes they have a working diagnoses to have insurance pay for why they are there...like my son got a mood disorder not otherwise specified diagnosis when this is nothing that he has but it allowed insurance to pay for his stay since the neuro hospital would not take him for fear of his behaviors)

Cant think of other things, except if a parent or teacher can consult with you be a good listener and really take to heart what they say no matter what any of the sometimes jaded staff may think ( and most are good but just fair warning)

 

[TeDo]

READ ALL 3 OF THOSE BOOKS the others have suggested. They will help IMMENSELY!!!!

 

[soapbox]

You are a teacher. This means that on one hand, you are "only" a teacher - you can't go putting labels on kids, etc., only the psychiatrists and other such professionals can do that. On the other hand, you are a TEACHER - and this means that your voice gets heard where a parent's voice might not.

If you have the interest, time and energy to do so, you might want to familiarize yourself with some of the subtle challenges these kids can face. If YOU are raising questions, somebody else might listen and act... on things that otherwise are being missed.

You'll already be familiar with the learning disabilities.

There's the motor skills set of issues. A good source for information on this is: CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research

There are APDs - from the classical Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) which you probably would catch, to the more subtle ones like auditory figure ground. Don't get too involved in the details of this so much as... watch out for the kid who has "normal" language but... just isn't getting it... typically, will "look like" an ADHD case - lack of focus, carelessness, etc. Watch for the child does well one-on-one and poorly in the classroom...

 

[ciounoi]

Thank you all for your replies! I actually bought the Explosive Child book and finished reading it already - it seems like a great book! Any particular successes with those methods?

 

[TeDo]

Using the methods in that book is how I found out difficult child 1 doesn't think ANYthing most people or I do. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have gone digging for a more accurate diagnosis. If it weren't for that, we wouldn't be doing as well as we are right now. It just snowballed (in a good way) from trying that new and radically different approach.

 

[buddy]

In a school setting I had a psychiatric and teacher who embraced the baskets and because my son has so many behaviors and they are neurologically driven, they felt strongly that easing his stress by not demanding he be able to follow school rules that were beyond him. They only expected him no to hurt .... did not even demand that he not touch people, just not hurt.

He had such relief that everything calmed. He was still himself, had issues, but I heard all year how great he was doing even by people who did not work with him (you know my kid if you work anywhere in a building... sigh).