Big Girl School

Friends, I am going back to school again... (cue: melodramatic sigh).

Actually, it's not "real" school. Last year, I completed my BCBA coursework, but I need to finish up my 1500 clinical hours...and I am barely halfway there. It has been on quite a hiatus since I started working in Manhattan Beach. So I persuaded my awesome classmate to take an intensive supervision curriculum course with me so that we can clock at least 700 hours by September. My goal is to begin studying for the Board exam over the summer, complete my hours before December, and take the exam next March or whenever it's offered.

In the meantime, I am realizing how valuable it is to be both an SLP and BCBA.

1. First of all, there are so few BCBAs out there that districts are willing to pay serious dollars. Secondly, there are even fewer SLP-BCBAs around these parts.
2. Going through the coursework has really honed my skills especially when working with the kids with severe autism.

My SDC class recently admitted a new kid with MAJORLY aggressive behaviors. This little terror (not even 5 feet, whereas the rest of his classmates tower over me) bites, pulls hair, scratches, digs his nails into your arm to the point of bruising, kicks, pinches, makes himself throw up, and...drum roll...grabs men and women's private parts.

Last Tuesday was my first day with him and it was interesting to say the least. The student is actually not on my caseload; he is supposed to be served by that SLP that caused this whole Manhattan Beach injustice with me. However, I can't help but intervene when I feel that it's necessary. Early on in the morning, the student snuck up on me (as he is known to do prior to attacking you), and he lightly set his nails onto my forearm as if ready to dig in. I just looked at him, smiled, and said hello. He looked at me and said, "hug?" I said, "no hug," and went back to typing.

Later on, all of the students went out for P.E. and I continued working on IEPs. The teacher came storming in with J and I knew right away that the kid must have done something wrong. The teacher tried to have him sit on the "x" on the floor (time-out) and the kid kept flopping over or trying to grab/attack the teacher. I asked the teacher to let me try (realizing that there was a high percentage this kid was going to attack me).

First, I got him to sit in a chair (which the teacher didn't think I/he could). I think that's really important b/c that gives me so much more control. I can prevent him from kicking, have him sitting up (vs. flopping over and laying down on the floor), and redirect his hands all at the same time. After I gained control, we worked on quiet sitting with me redirecting his hands every time he tried to reach out/grab/scratch, etc. I showered tons of positive reinforcement every few seconds ("Good quiet sitting!") as well as time-out from reinforcement when he did something bad (I turned or moved away). I also worked on perspective-taking. The kid kept touching his huge bruises and saying, "it hurts." Just about broke my heart when he looked at me and bawled with puppy dog eyes, "it hurts!" I turned it into a teachable moment and said, "You see how Mr. ___ has bruises from you? It hurts him, too. When you grab or pinch Mr. ___, it hurts him, too. When we play nicely and gently, nobody gets hurt and everyone is happy..." (I'm sure my verbal social story wasn't THAT well-versed but you get the idea.)

FYI: don't worry, a report to DCFS has already been made. I was semi-excited and semi-anxious about the idea of making my first DCFS call as a mandated reporter for serious concerns. At the same time, I was relieved to know that a call has already been made so I don't have to.

I remember on my drive home, I was talking to H2B about what a good day I had. It started with me holding a meeting with the SLP Team in MB and doing a quick training, and then rolling into a good day of work in my SDC class. I told H2B that I haven't had a day like this in a long time where I really felt rewarded as a consummate professional. Since I've been in MB, my professional confidence has definitely built up 3-fold, but I don't realize it b/c I am constantly put down and hearing about my mistakes 4-fold.

The last thing I remember from that day is looking into J's eyes as he looked into mine for what must have been at least half a minute of calm and pure silence, and I thought, "This is my calling. This is what I'm meant to do." It felt good to know that God is always with me and I have a place in this world.

*******

P.S. This is not to say that I am totally awesome at what I do. The next morning, we got a call from the aide riding on the bus with J who said, "he made himself throw up all over his clothes and the bus." So we met them outside and again, I worked with him while the teacher cleaned the bus. That was kool and the gang.

Later on, though, he walked right up to me and grabbed my boob. I was so stunned! I told the aide to enforce a time-out (from reinforcement) for 5 minutes. I was even more upset when I found out the aide didn't. No wonder this kid gets away with everything short of murder...