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Am i doing it right?

carbon

I work in main stream school with an autistic boy age 4 who has an obsession with trains.

An incident occured with another teaching assistant where she refused to give him his train to hold, as she wanted him to get his lunch box. he got extremely upset  screaming,kicking and punching,( normal behaviour when he can't cope with something) I asked her to give him the train and then ask him to get his lunchbox. He took the train and then went and got his lunchbox. 

She feels that he has  behaviour problems, I see it differently, I see a boy who is having difficulty coping at this particular time as he is severly autistic and needed to hold his train to help him cope.

Do I need to change the way I think and make sure that he does what he is asked to do even if I know it is causing him extreme distress at times  and can be avoided or is it a behaviour issue and I am making it worse.

 

 

Parents

  • The train is probably his only source of comfort. If he does as he's told without the fuss when he has his train, let him have the damn train! Its common sense!

    I know the arguement from nt's is 'but he had to learn to do things without it!'

    Duh. And he will do things without his train, when he feels secure enough to do so. Even to this day, I form attatchments to clothes or items that I take everywhere with me, in particular, a scarf and some small fur tails (as stroking them helps me calm down and relieves my anxiety). If someone took these from me and demanded I go do something, I'd full on freak out as well! This is coming from a 19 year old girl (at University) with Aspergers!

    I honestly believe that the other teaching assistant (as Scorpion said) is a cow. Yes, in 'normal' kids, they're trying to get their own way, in those with autism, its about trying to find ways of coping with a terrifying and outright vicious world, and if having a toy is enough to make him secure, good for the kid. He'll learn to adapt to having maybe a more subtle security 'blanket' when he's older, for now, let the kid have his train. Its obvious that it disturbs and upsets -everyone- when it's removed from him.

    And send the teaching assistant for training when it comes to dealing with autism, she seems to have little understanding of the emotional impact her actions have.

    I can safely say I wish there were more like you in schools, I'd have loved a teacher like you in primary. Just keep doing what you're doing. Smile

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  • The train is probably his only source of comfort. If he does as he's told without the fuss when he has his train, let him have the damn train! Its common sense!

    I know the arguement from nt's is 'but he had to learn to do things without it!'

    Duh. And he will do things without his train, when he feels secure enough to do so. Even to this day, I form attatchments to clothes or items that I take everywhere with me, in particular, a scarf and some small fur tails (as stroking them helps me calm down and relieves my anxiety). If someone took these from me and demanded I go do something, I'd full on freak out as well! This is coming from a 19 year old girl (at University) with Aspergers!

    I honestly believe that the other teaching assistant (as Scorpion said) is a cow. Yes, in 'normal' kids, they're trying to get their own way, in those with autism, its about trying to find ways of coping with a terrifying and outright vicious world, and if having a toy is enough to make him secure, good for the kid. He'll learn to adapt to having maybe a more subtle security 'blanket' when he's older, for now, let the kid have his train. Its obvious that it disturbs and upsets -everyone- when it's removed from him.

    And send the teaching assistant for training when it comes to dealing with autism, she seems to have little understanding of the emotional impact her actions have.

    I can safely say I wish there were more like you in schools, I'd have loved a teacher like you in primary. Just keep doing what you're doing. Smile

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