week three

I am trying to make a better effort this year to schedule play dates for Hayden, while being mindful of the fact that he needs his own space after school. He likes his routine-- which usually involves quiet iPad time. I best be a certain distance away from him, even if it means I am just sitting a few feet away, as long as he is not seeing me move about too much in his peripheral vision.

So when I do try to schedule an occasional play date, what seems to work best is if I say, "What if we try to meet up with so-and-so at some point this week." I can plant the seed without placing any expectations on Hayden. Then on the morning of the play date, before he goes to school, his mood can help me gauge whether I should bring it up or play it by ear.

It's not that he has social anxiety, because he truly loves people & thrives from being around friends & family. With Hayden, his challenges have more to do with understanding the beginning & the end of a "task" (ie playdate), & about how long it's going to take. Not that it needs to be over before it even started-- he just wants to know what to expect (to a degree). He does not necessarily need a visual schedule either because I can tell him verbally, but he will trust that I am accurate.

So in his life in general, when things do not go as expected, he feels it.

Here we are at the end of the third week, of the new school year. And apparently I missed a call on my way home yesterday, which I realized about an hour after the fact.

There was a voicemail from Hayden's teacher & she said it wasn't an emergency & that everything was okay, but she wanted to tell me about something that happened. She also said something to the effect of... "in case he is talking about it when he gets home..."

So, apparently Hayden's day began with some difficulty. Shortly after arriving at school, he stopped at the nurse's office as usual (with his Aide) to receive one of his medications. Yesterday there was not only a substitute nurse, but one he did not know. To make matters worse, his special ed teacher was in training for most of the day & the person filling in for her was unfamiliar as well. And to trigger his anxiety even further, he would have gym class this particular morning-- a loud, busy, sensory-overloading environment which he has difficulty in, more often than not. (We do have strategies that have been effective... but long story short, his new Aide is slowly being brought up-to-speed...)


Anyway, speaking of said Aide, even though Hayden likes him the fact is they're still getting to know one another. So today, as things stood, anyone who Hayden already has an established relationship with was not readily available. That's life & that will happen from time to time & I get that.

But this perfect storm of anxiety-triggers continued to escalate until Hayden could take no more.... & he apparently placed his mouth around his Aide's arm. He did not bite down & there were no teeth marks. But he put his mouth around another person's arm.

Hayden's special ed teacher has known him long enough & well enough to realize that he recognizes his own actions. Hayden's own remorse would weigh on him much more than anything we could say. Disciplining him is not what this is about, because we would only be bringing attention to something he already understands. What we need to do is address the antecedents of the behavior & devise solutions-- which we have & we will continue to do.

That being said, the most we did today was have a calm side-dialogue when Hayden was within earshot. I told Dan the story in a normal speaking tone & I talked about Hayden, even though he was right there to hear us. Ultimately he just wants everyone to be proud of him & he, too, wants to be proud of himself. So I need not say much.

Again, changes are a part of life & they will happen from time to time. I hate that this incident happened & I know it's not really "Hayden". He just does not have an aggressive personality or any history of self-injurious behaviors, or anything of that nature. The teacher knows this, too, & she reiterated the aforementioned to the Principal as well. Yes it breaks my heart but if I can take away one thing from all this, it's exactly what everyone else should see, too:

That my insistence for regularly scheduled progress meetings... my letters to administrators... my presence at Board meetings (dry-eyed, or not)... my fragile x talks with staff... my fragile x talks with classmates... my distribution of Hayden's Positive Student Profile... my regular sharing of input from specialists... my dedication to maintain as much consistency for Hayden as I possibly can... is all for a reason.

That's the thing about advocacy efforts for your kid-- if you're going about it the right way, they're actually in everyone's best interest.

To paraphrase the well-known quote...In the end, everything will be okay. Until then, it's not the end.

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