Hyperventilating

ESY has been fun and surprisingly relaxing. Although, I'm sure anything compared to this past academic year is a walk in the park.

This summer, I'm working with a high school class of Trainable Mentally Handicapped students, a middle school SDC autism class, and my usual MS SDC autism class.

Yesterday, I got a good laugh. It was the second time I was working with a particular student so I wasn't too familiar with him. He kept yawning but was working fine when suddenly, he clutched his chest with both hands and yelled in a strained voice, "I CAN'T BREATHE! [Gasp] I CAN'T BREATHE!" In retrospect, I'm really baffled by my behavior because I didn't even flinch. I didn't panic and look for his aide nor did I think I had to perform CPR.

I just looked him square in the eye and said in a calm voice, "You're okay. Just take a deep breath like this..." and we audibly breathed together like we were doing respiration therapy or something. He was immediately (visibly) fine, and we kept going with therapy. I really had to stifle my laugh b/c I didn't want to positively reinforce that type of behavior so in my mind's eye, I was laughing hysterically and thinking, what the heck just happened? Is this kid for real? I think I'm baffled by my own behavior b/c I didn't react like it was a medical emergency. Hey, at least I quickly assesses the situation before responding -- he didn't just do vigorous movement so he wasn't having an asthma attack. He didn't just eat so he wasn't experiencing a severe allergic reaction to anything. So I just went about it from a behavioral perspective. =P

After a few moments, I heard his aide from across the room ask where he was and then she noticed that he was with me. I turned away from him and tried past him so he couldn't hear and asked his aide if he occasionally goes into an "I can't breathe!" thing. She said, "yeah, from time to time; he's a real drama queen."

Of course he overheard me asking her b/c next thing I know, he's clutching his chest again and yelling, "I CAN'T BREATHE!!"

Hilarious.