Consequences

Tad is doing tremendously well in class right now.  His time spent in the mainstream general education kindergarten class is working out so well that his teacher told me that she couldn’t pick him out of the crowd when he’s working in there.  He does protest a little about going (he doesn’t want to miss out on his class and his friends), but he does really well once he gets there.

His problem, as it always has been, is recess.

When you give Tad unstructured time to run around, he goes a little crazy.  And sometimes it’s more than a little crazy.  Sometimes it’s a whole lotta crazy.

Initially, his teacher had him writing apology notes to kids he hit or pushed.  She asked me if I wanted to hear about every note, and when I said no, I didn’t need to, she seemed relieved – because he was writing at least one a day.

But Tad needed to learn that these behaviors, which are unacceptable for any other kid, are also unacceptable to him.

So his teacher decided on a new strategy – I call it the “one strike” policy.

If he hits or pushes a kid at recess, that’s it.  He gets no more recesses that day.

At the beginning, he was missing a lot of recess.  I didn’t care.  It seemed that there was finally a consequence that he cared about, and he knew that he was being punished for his behavior.

The last couple of days, I’ve received glowing notes home that he is behaving himself perfectly.  When I asked on Monday, “What is he doing at recess?”, they told me that he is running around with his good buddy from the class, Adam, and having a good time without pushing anyone over.

So… he’s actually PLAYING with someone and keeping CONTROL of himself.

Pinch me NOW.

I’m sure that his days of losing recesses are not completely behind him yet, especially with all the school breaks for the holidays that are soon to be coming up.  But he is learning that his actions have immediate consequences, and that he doesn’t like losing privileges.

He’s starting to catch on.  It just took him a bit longer.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 at 1:30 am and is filed under Autism Adventures, Children, School Days.
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