• Replies 6 replies
  • Subscribers 65 subscribers
  • Views 1705 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Use of specific areas in school

liloctoplot

Hi,

I'm wanting some rather urgent advice. I'm a 1:1 in a small primary school for a high functioning ASD child. As any ASD child he can not cope with any change of routine and in particular change of environment. We have a 'little room' next to our classroom which I can bring him into when he needs to get out of the classroom and calm down. We also do daily trainsition work (first thing in the morning), social work, feelings work etc. in here. This room was set aside for him when he joined the school last year and has over this time been adapted in various ways to aid his needs and how stressed he gets.

We share this room with a hearing impared child. This child is needing the room more often due to a recent change in circumstances and the fact that the room was kitted out with special curtains many years ago for a previous pupil. We have only recently been told this and are being required to be out of the room at set times of the day.

For my lad, this is already causing problems. He is beginning to refuse to go in the room when stressed and needing to be in a certain part of the room to calm down, when the hearing impaired lad is in there. The only other place we can use is half way across the school, through 3 different doors. I am the only Team Teach trained person in the school but I am not meant to use it as I was trained in a different school. I am not prepared to 'man handle' (for want of better words) my lad half way across the school, screaming and kicking in a stress fit because I can't access the room which is directly next us. The school are not paying out for other teachers to be team teached due to the budgeting issues at present.

Can I have some advice on what other schools have/are doing in this sort of situation, and any other suggestions people have that could help us here.

Thanks

  • Thanks for the comments. Please keep sugestions coming. We are having a meeting tomorrow after school and I'd like to take as many suggestions as I can with me so we can try and get something in place. I have been to my Head this morning and said I am not dragging him round the school in one of those situations. Its not good for him, me or the rest of school when no one else is trained to deal with those situations.

     We have an Ed Pshyc, but she's as good as a cold drink in an oven. We are currently pushing for OT assessment due to other issues that I can see being made worse by this situation already. I am documenting as much change in anyway as I can in preperation but we have to be granted it yet and have the budget for it.

    I myself am no stranger to autism. My brother has a mixed diagonsis of Aspergers, ADHD, Turets, and Bipolar so I have grown up living and breathing autism and its hurdles. I know the difficulties but I'm stuck with this one. I have reffered to this website a few times and knew of the discussion boards. Everything is worth a try and there are so many people here for support and advise.

     

  • Hi

    I have heard some schools when desperate for a quiet space have used pop up tents or similar, or even a corner of a room sectioned off. Maybe he could help create it or choose some special items to go in it such as Kalojaro mentioned or maybe a beanbag, big huggable cushion, twinkly lights, squash ball etc. 

    I can understand the lad with ASD will have built up a "bond" with the room and probably feel a bit of ownership of it and it is where he feels safe and secure.  To take this away could be devastating for many ASD kids and cause a great deal more distress than the issue he needs calming for originally.  I can also understand he may feel very resentful of the other child taking over his space.  I agree with you also, taking a stressed child across the other side of the school would be throwing fuel on the fire and seem cruel. 

    My son has HFA and I know we would all be in for a rough ride if something that had been such a big part of his security over a long period of time was taken away and given to someone else.  We would have challenging behaviour and his education would suffer.  If he was in a wheelchair they would not take that away.

    I understand it is not easy having children with autism in mainstream school but these children did not ask to be autistic, nor did they ask to be left with a choice of education where they do not fit in to a specialist school and mainstream cannot/will not support them.  They and there families have to deal with the gap they fall into and the massive mental torment they go through unnecesarily.  This is why although it is very hard for all staff in mainstream and the ASD child, they deserve not to be written off and treated less favourably than others.  They have a right to get the best opportunity to access education possible and have a future where they can meet their potential.

    It is great that you are on here asking for advice to try and improve the situation and prevent him and his family going through a lot of pain, suffering and potentially regression. 

    Good for you, keep pushing for an alternative.  Can the Ed Psych or O.T. help support you in what you are trying to achieve?

     

  • Just wondering if there's something else you can get the lad to focus on to make him feel safe? For me being able to hug my rucksack was always helpful and I used it (and still do) to make a barrier between me and other people. The point of it is to provide comfort, so even in a new situation you have something solid you can rely on.

    An alternative is to try and give him a toy to bond with (I admit, depends on his age), when I was little, my mum used to coax me to go places using my favourite stuffed rabbit toy. She'd say things like 'Mummy rabbit doesn't want to go alone, won't you look after her?' which would make me brave a situation because a) my primary concern was the care of my rabbit and b) it was once again a comfort object I could rely on.

    If you can find something your lad is attatched to, like a toy, perhaps you could convince him that it would be better for the toy to 'move' to the new room, and that it needs him to come visit to make it feel better? This would give him an incentive to go there as well as a sense of familiarity.

    Good luck.

  • I think if this were to happen because of issues with the room/quiet area the school would need to be very careful they aren't leaving themselves open to a breach of disability discrimination laws.

    The only thing I can suggest is that the other room is prepared for this child and you slowly introduce it to him before he actually needs to use it. Other posters may have some other ideas.

  • There unfortuantly is no way of splitting the room. Its too small to be split and hold the needs of both children.

    It is very difficult to cater for a child with ASD in mainstream. We are trying not to favour either child. Not being able to access the area he needs then puts us and potentially other children in some quite violent and exceptionaly unplesant situations. I can see him being pulled out of school if his stress and anxiety levels are not kept low because of the way it affects him at home and his health.

  • Can the hearing impaired child use the other room instead? It isn't favouring the child with ASD over the other, it's a case of each of their individual needs and difficulties being met in the best way. If not, can the room be split in two with a screen to create two working spaces.

    As the mother of a child with ASD who has one of these rooms available to him at school, it can be the difference between him attending school and not at times of distress.