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mommyof4boys
member
How to respond to this?
mommyof4boys
member
I am trained in ABA but not a BCABA. My 4 year old is in ESY for the summer. He has PDD_NOS. They have had 3 different teachers in his room. His "new" teacher isn't following his motivation schedule. There's only a week and a half left of ESY BUT she specifically asked us to NOT bring his 2 cars in that he's used as a motivator for 2 years. She didn't do any fade of his prompt and is expecting that he's going to adjust. She said today he was defiant with them and didn't want to work. I want to respond with "No duh, you took his motivator away". I'm trying to not sound snotty when I respond. Any suggestions?
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Re: How to respond to this?
What did you do? Pour some "defiance" on his cheerios instead of milk? Geez. I am at a loss. She supposed to be the expert right?
I guess I would ask her what she would suggest you do about defiance when you are not present. How is that behavior your fault? Is it maybe her passive agressive way of telling you to stop using the motivator at home?
Will you continue dealing with her in the coming school year or be done with her at the end of ESY?
If you'll be done with her then I'd simply respond, " I think eliminating his motivators clearly resulted in the uncooperative behavior so I'll be sending them back in. If there is a reason why you specifically do not want the cars being used we need to come up with an alternative and be prepared that after 2 years of success specifically with the cars there is going to be an adjustment period to anything else".
If you'll be continuing on with her as part of your team I'd probably go with something along the lines of, "I think that the defiance today was most likely an expression of C's confusion, anger and possibly anxiety at the sudden removal of a critical component of his work structure. With 2 years of working with the cars as motivators the removal of his known and understood motivator left him confused, frustrated, angry and he didn't see how things were supposed to work because the balance (he puts something out and gets something in return) was destroyed. With such a short time left with ESY I feel the best solution, both for C and the team is to continue using the cars as his main motivator and use the main school year to work on phasing them out, eliminating his need for them."
Did she even tell you why she pulled them? Does she think he shouldn't need them any longer so she's decided the best thing is to force him to go cold turkey and have no motivation? Heck, I'm no ABA, I don't even have a kid on spectrum and even I can see that just eliminating them is a recipe for disaster.
I responded with I was still sending them in as he had those motivators for 2 years. I point blank asked if she had faded them out (knowing she didn't) so I have it documented. I also told her that summer wasn't the time to mess with his program.
Defiance was served with his toaster strudel yesterday
IF she would have read his IEP she would have known his MO to NOT work is to just sit and not move. He turns to mush to so speak. The toddler drop has been mastered and unfortunately he's not a toddler any more BUT the low tone helps. He has a behaviorist working with him and I also suggested she contact that person to see what can be done to work on his behaviors. His behavior plan hasn't been used since she started last week. I was in bed all week otherwise I would have taken it on last week. I was recovering from heart surgery. Add to everything that he has an AAC that I'm assuming wasn't used or she would have known from him what was going on. He uses an ipad with proloquo2go that she could use to talk to him about why he doesn't want to work.
I asked him what was going on. She's NOT using the toys during ABA time at all. He didn't tell me what they are using during ABA. Anyone trained in it knows you need a motivator to have the kids work. He typically earns free time playing with friends, his toys, or a sticker. He's not getting any of those. He is trying to play with them during free play time as a group and she won't let him pull them out. I can understand that; what happens if something gets lost or put back in their pile of toys. He doesn't understand that though.
No one knows who will be his teacher for September. They haven't hired anyone. His teacher, who taught ABA for 24 years switched positions and is now working with behavior disabilities.
They sent him home on Tuesday because he had a runny nose and wasn't working for them. They thought he was sick. He was tired as he didn't sleep well the night before; he was up from 3:30 to 4:45. That is in his IEP (that he doesn't sleep through the night yet) He has a runny nose all the time. That is in his IEP as well. He has allergies to dust, pollen, etc. He has had a clear runny nose for about 4 years now.
I told her that after 2 years of him using the same motivators I wasn't comfortable changing his program without fading of a new prompt and summer isn't the time to change a program. I suggested she contact his behaviorist if she needed help. The district maintains summer is to maintain skills and NOT change program or work on new skills. I'm using their words against them now...I will also be asking for a meeting in September to see how all these changes worked for him this summer. He's had 3 teachers, multiple bus drivers, etc. Any one can see THAT is also going to produce negative consequences.
Even with just a week left I would put a call/email in to someone on the IEP team- the school psych or SLP or someone who might be back already for evals and could possibly step in and explain things to the teacher. That way you might get some result and it's documented again. Or you could always make a copy of the IEP and highlight the stuff she's not doing. Compliance is a handy buzz-word..