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Severe behavioural meltdowns

NAS80219

Today has been a difficult day for our students. Unfortunately the main issue today is the lack of staff we have had recently, due to sickness, which means they can't have their usual staff for lessons. 

2 students in particular have struggled greatly. They both have decorated their classroom and staff with pens. We do pick our battles so we werent too bothered but we did call for support because it was starting to get out of hand. They didnt want their staff so they were in a room together by themselves which they know they arent allowed but refused to have staff in. In the end it ended up with this:

The first student was breaking, throwing and smashing stuff in the classroom, screaming, swearing and in tears. 

The second student was hurting staff so was put into a positive hold. They then started shouting and trying to bite staff. They then started to head bang and bite themselves and pull their hair. In the end they were on the floor hyperventilating, sweating, bruised and with a swollen head. This went on for 1 hour. 

We gave them the help and first aid they needed once they were calm enough but we hate seeing our students struggle. What else could we have done to help? We tried our best and in the end they were happy and calm to a point. We are going to let the parents know after debrief. In all honesty, we've never seen these 2 students struggle this much before. 

Thanks for letting us rant on but we want to hear your views and opinions on what we could've done better so we can improve.

  • in reply to Glitter

    We used to use the Team Teach training but now use the Riise program. We had them figured out, when things went wrong they needed someone who they felt safe with to talk to or just a hug but recently this hasn't worked. 

  • in reply to NAS80219

    At this point schools need to start contracting out professional autistic adults who can spot the discrepancy before it arises. Chloe is a PhD https://aucademy.co.uk she may be able to send someone to assist. 

  • in reply to NAS80219

    Does your school use the Team Teach training? It's a very good system and will help identify triggers and find less threatening solutions.  Every child is different though, and every relationship is different, so each situation has to be looked at by those who know them best.

  • UPDATE: One of these particular student's behaviour has changed dramatically. It is the second one I was talking about. For months they have been calmer, more relaxed, and well behaved except the few minor issues. Since I first posted this, they have been a lot more challenging.

    The littlest thing makes them tick, and their response is more severe and harder to deal with. The past week they have been screaming, swearing, ripped something off the wall and tried pulling the wall apart near wires so had to be hold for safety. They seem a lot more angry, upset and frustrated. We have spoken to them and they have explained that they don't trust us staff which we totally understand. 

    We've had to call parents a lot because their behaviour becomes unmanageable at times. They hurt themselves when things go wrong so have to be held for everyones safety because they are very aggressive. We don't know what is going on except the trust we've lost so we don't know how to help as such. Parents don't have a clue and blame us so we are on our own unfortunately. 

    If anyone has any tips, we are very thankful. 

  • in reply to NAS83342

    Sorry I didn't put this clearly, I was in a rush. We are a special needs school and the students just stay in their classroom all day unless it's O.T or if they need time out. The classrooms usually have 1-4 students in, each staffed on a 1:1 or 2:1 basis all day. 

    The students know every morning who their staff are for the day and if they need changing or get changed we will let them know as soon as we can. Today was just one of those days where we didn't have enough staff and all students routines were messed up because of this. Staff had to drop down from students to go support other staff and students. Some days just don't go the way we would like it to go. Everyone has good and bad days and today was one of those. 

  • Am I on the right track when I say that the distress was.more than usual because the routine was disturbed? Or something ie the teachers were not the same..what I am getting at is that I have learnt with my son that as long as you pick your moments ie work around his routine he is quite obliging but if you come at him when he's doing his thing with something unexpected he will meltdown..

    So for example it needed to have been kept the same ie same teachers which was first thing that was different and then they were in another room.which was different to usual routine.

    One thing that could've helped is if and where possible to have contacted each student in advance and tell them of the changes they can expect   like send them a photo of the new room they are going to be.in...in advance

    Also tell them by email in advance or send pics of teachers they'll be with and who will.be.missing etc.