Alexander

One of my goals this year was to increase my consultation cases. I wanted to get into the real nitty-gritty of working with teachers on issues they are having in the classroom. Of course, when it comes to consultation, it also means that I evaluate the teacher to see what changes she can make to address the target behaviors. Over the past 3 weeks Alexander had floated to the top of the "Children that require extra attention" list. He was noticeably from the first day of school, but now he's been attracting my attention.

He's classically ADHD. He calls out. He can't stay seated. He sings and hums at his desk. He plays with his pencil and eraser when he should be doing classwork. I had started working with his teacher to address his behavior. We came up with different plans, one plan was to address his frustration. It was designed to give him a way to release his frustration. There was also a plan to reward him for positive behavior. The teacher just started to use these plans in conjunction, sometimes.

Yesterday afternoon, I was called to deal with Alexander three times in about an hour and a half. It was getting ridiculous because I was trying assess a student. I knew that I could have been on call, so I was only conducting an interview. The student got to see some of the things I have to do in school, and he marveled at how often my intercom phone rang. After dealing with Alexander and seeing how frustrated his teacher was, I knew that I had to develop some ideas. I felt like I was stuck in the "No Idea" corner. I knew I had to kick it old school and hit the books. It was the first time in a while that I wished I was still in grad school; just to be able to brainstorm with my classmates. I really needed to talk to them last night. My SO told me to email them, but that would take to long. I would have to spell out all of the details in order to get an adequate response. So I hit the books and the internet and found some inspiration. I had to remember what the goal of consultation is. At the moment all I wanted was a peaceful day without having to report to this classroom multiple times a day to remove Alexander to another room. After some thought, I remembered the goal of consultation: empower the teacher. With that, I knew what I had to do.

To start, I really needed to see what was going on in the classroom, because by the time I got there, I ended up witnessing the tail end of a long spiral of behavior that went from bad to worse. Multiple incidents usually started with Alexander getting frustrated and instead of leaving the classroom to cool-off, he would have a stand-off with his teacher and refuse to leave. She would request someone to come to the room, to escort him to a neighboring class to cool-off. And of course, he would still refuse. I would ask what happened, and I wasn't able to get a clear answer to what set him off. I decided that an observation would give me the opportunity to see what led up to Alexander's removals.

I sat in the classroom for about 2 hours this morning, and what I saw was jaw-dropping. This kid was non-stop. He was a constant ball of energy; all over his desk and chair, seriously sitting upside down in his chair, I didn't think that was possible. He was singing and talking to himself. He was calling out for no real reason. All of his behavior was attention-seeking. To her credit, his teacher ignores a huge amount of it, but that may be part of the problem. Most of the students were ignoring him, which was remarkable on their part. But Alexander wouldn't be denied, he kept pushing and pushing until someone was going to notice him. The students eat breakfast at their desks in the morning, so they eat breakfast while they complete their morning work. Alexander was focused on eating and playing with his breakfast, and decided that he could use his milk to gain the attention of his classmates.

As I sat only four feet away from him, he proceeded to shake his milk carton, open it and giggle like a 4 year old, and stick his hand up to his wrist into the milk. Then, he started to fling his hands around in order to spray anything in his vicinity with milk. A couple of his classmates felt the milk hit them and started to say something. At this point I intervened because it was obvious that his teacher wasn't paying attention to this either. That was the perfect opportunity for the teacher to address his behavior and she didn't. When I intervened, I wished I had a camera, because my words cannot do justice to what I was watching. Alexander turned to me, his face, hands, and forearms dripping with milk. At that moment I wanted a camera. Before he could deny his involvement in the situation or question mine, someone announced that the principal was coming. Alexander looked bewildered and when the principal walked in, I had never seen a kid try to get his act together so quickly. He became a completely different child. (I wanted to tell someone about his unbelievable behavior and I realized that with my wireless laptop, I could email the principal, who was most likely sitting at her desk at that moment. However, I never imagined that she would actually come in for an observation.)

So my principal found a seat and it just so happened that the class was transitioning to group reading activity. This required them to sit on the floor while the teacher read them a short passage. As the students gathered on the floor, Alexander worked on cleaning off his desk and the floor around him. When he made it to the group, he was the model student; sitting with his legs crossed, hands in his lap, looking forward, and raising his hand to answer questions. He was a different student. The principal left after a short time and Alexander managed to maintain his appropriate behavior. When the class made it back to their seats, Alexander's good behavior lasted for about 5 minutes. Then the noises and movement around his desk returned.

What I had witnessed for those 2 hours provided me with many ideas to help the teacher. I left with a better picture of what occurs in the class. I met with the teacher and gave her some ideas. My principal and the social worker also had some ideas. I was worried at first because I didn't know where to go, so I went back to the basics. It's amazing what a good ol' observation can do.

BBC