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Challenging behaviour - SEN Teachers asking for advice

NAS80219

I have just posted on the forum letting you know I'm new here and a bit about our school background and why we have joined. I hope you can read it. If you have I would like, (and I have permission by the appropriate people), to share a bit about a student who we have been struggling with for a while now. I will call them Riley (not their real name for privacy and safe guarding reasons). 

Riley is a teenager who joined us last year. Riley is diagnosed with autism and displays very challenging behaviour at times which we struggle to manage at times. Rileys challenging behaviour includes, but not limited to:

  • S.I.B (Self Injurious Behaviour)
  • Aggression towards staff (verbal and physical) 
  • Absconding and running off 
  • Disruptive behaviour (creating a difficult working environment for others) 
  • Refusal to do work and listen to instructions 

We do our best to help Riley when things get difficult. We use PECS and visuals, schedules, sensory toys, weighted blankets, side hugs, change of face if Riley doesn't want a particular teacher, and space if they want to be left alone. 

Today was a bit tricky for everyone, expecially Riley. Riley was very tired, overwhelmed and confused, emotions you don't want to deal with, especially at the same time. Riley didn't want any teachers today and locked them out the room and was doing laps round the school. Riley started swearing at staff, telling them to 'f!ck off', then started throwing things about in a way to communicate. We said 'Riley, you look upset. Do you want to have a chat with anyone?', incase they wanted to chat about what's bothering them but Riley refused this. 

Honestly, that was a little part of the day, and that's just a usual day. We don't like seeing students struggling and we try our best to figure out the issue behind the behaviour and what we can do and put in place to help but over the past few months of working close to Riley, nothing has changed or is getting worse and we just aren't sure what to do or suggest next. We contact the parents everyday so we know how she is before school and we update them after school about the day. If anyone has any ideas, we are very grateful. We are open to everything. Thanks for reading this. Sorry its very long, didn't know how to shorten it. 

Parents
  • NAS80219 said:
    • S.I.B (Self Injurious Behaviour)
    • Aggression towards staff (verbal and physical) 
    • Absconding and running off 
    • Disruptive behaviour (creating a difficult working environment for others) 
    • Refusal to do work and listen to instructions 

    What you have here is a list of effects with out causes so it's really hard to infer what might be helpful and obviously you are constrained by confidentiality so I'm going to have to speculate quite a bit.

    What you are describing sounds eariliy similar to people I've known personally. It sounds like it could be complex PTSD in combination with autism. Complex PTSD being trauma that took place over a protracted period of time such as being abused by a trusted person over a long period of time. A lot of the points on this list would make sense even with out autism in that context. But of course the autism makes it particularly hard to express that trauma to others or to figure out who can be trusted.

    My feeling is you probably need to make progress on dealing with the trauma before you can make significant progress on behaviour in an educational setting. She needs a network of peers (people with whom she doesn't have to worry about an authority dynamic) around her she trusts and can open up to about what she's been through.

    When the 'noise' of her anger and pain has died down, or at least become more ordered in her own mind because she's been able to make 'sense' of it by working through it with others, then the residual aggression and disruptive behaviour that's left is something you can address with a package of adjustments.

  • in reply to Peter

    Have you considered some sort of mentoring or big brother scheme. Pairing her up with a responsible high functioning autistic person closer to her age who she might feel able to open up to?

Reply Children
  • in reply to Peter

    No, we haven't. We dont feel this would be in her best interest. We have a counsellor who works with our students and we are trying to get a session in to speak to them again. She does open up to some staff members, but first we need to gain her trust and not loose it. She is really good with communicating what's wrong with these staff. Most of the time, she likes it if we ask questions and guess what's wrong and we will soon find out the issue.