Pease help
Snapshots: Behavior Disorders
Video Transcript
Eric
Kelly:
Eric Shawn “The Bullet” Robinson. He is busy. He is hyper, needless to say, but he is very intelligent, very receptive. He is like a four year old in a ten year old’s body. Eric’s challenges are family security basically. He is very insecure because of the history of our family in the last ten years. I am divorced and his father really hasn’t paid much interest in him and it has really hurt him. He kind of thinks that mom is always going to leave him too.
The children’s center, I am not exaggerating at all, has made our life bearable and happy and full of love again, because before we came where, which was just four months ago, I feel kind of guilty saying it, but I have to because It’s the truth, I didn’t like my son. I couldn’t stand him. I couldn’t stand being around him for a long time. I could take him for about ten minutes. Every day he would ruin something in the house and I was about at my wits end when I came here. They have worked on with behavioral modification and slowed him down. The medication, he was on Ritalin and he has just come off of it which helped tremendously in the sense that it called him down enough and helped his attention span so that they could work with him on behavior concepts and the consequences of rights and wrongs and how to really verbalize and express himself. Rather than expressing himself physically.
Douglas Goldsmith, PHD:
When I first worked with Eric it was in order to give him a psychological evaluation to determine whether or not he was in fact appropriate for our day treatment setting and Eric was probably one of the most extremely hyper active children that I have ever tested. During the testing he was severely oppositional it was really difficult to get him to complete tasks. He would insist that he was not going to perform, jump up from the table, and walk away. He was extremely active child throughout the entire session. In this case there is clearly a biological aspect of Eric’s hyperactivity. There is some kind of chemical or neurological disturbance that is helping drive this child, but the psychological testing also showed us that he is also very conflicted about his parent’s separation and the social factors going on in his life.
Eric attends our day treatment group for five days a week, three hours a day. In that setting we are helping him learn how to feel better about himself. That’s one of the things that Eric came in with was some very strong feelings that nobody likes him, that he is no good, and he would make those kinds of statement frequently to the therapists. One of the purposes of group then is to help him develop a more positive self-esteem by giving him positive feedback, helping him recognize his strengths.
Lori Blickfeldt:
Eric’s first day he was rather quiet and solemn. He watched other children play with interest, but made no attempt to join them. He would turn his back towards peers and adults if they approached him.
Shari Sant:
During a structured activity, Eric would be easily distracted. He is really good about remembering the schedule and the routine. Hanging his jacket up, placing his lunch box on a special shelf that we have for the kid’s belongings. And then he will really anxiously run into the middle of the room. “Hey Shari, I had a horrible night last night! I got kicked out of gymnastics” He will immediately start telling me about the events that he had happen the day before and then he will look up at me and say, “do you still like me?”
He is very needy of adult support. After we have this open free play, unstructured play, we go directly into washing our hands and having lunch. Any transition is very difficult for Eric, he does not really like to clean up when it is time to clean up and he will push the limits as far as he possibly can. Often during a time of transition that’s when you will see the aggressive physical, hitting, kicking, biting screaming. The kids really do enjoy Eric when he is in a happy pleasant mood. They do become fearful of him when he does get outraged.
Ms. Blickfeldt:
Right now Eric is working on a goal to work interactively with his peers, that he can express in words instead of hitting or kicking his peers. If he can express in words exactly how he feels that would be something that we could reinforce and we would praise him. Also another goal is to increase his compliance. Where he is actually able to be directed or re-directed by us.
Ms. Sant:
We have the social workers, which are also titled the parent workers. Kelly comes in and spends some time with Dorothy and Dorothy will say Shari we need you to come down to the classroom and talk to Kelly for a few minutes and then I go down and just briefly give her a summary of what we have seen in Eric’s behavior, any regression or progression that he is making in the last week or two weeks.
Dorothy Evans, L.C.S.W.:
With Kelly I try to get her to understand what we are doing here with her little guy at the children’s center. We sometimes talk about some of the things that she is feeling and experiencing and the things that affect her in her life, because they in turn affect her ability as a parent.
Ms. Sant:
Jim is a parent worker, a social worker, but he also does individual therapy and he is currently working with Eric. He comes and gets Eric I believe it is about three times a week at a specific set time so Eric can look forward to that and plan on that. They spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour usually one on one where they engage in basically just play. A lot of times Jim will be able to talk with Eric and really get some issues out in the open that we just can’t possibly do when we have eight other little boys there. Basically it’s time that he can have with Eric one on one without any interruptions or distractions.
Jim Taliaferro, C.S.W.:
There are times when I may notice something that he is doing in his play that relates to maybe something that is going on at his home and I can make some interpretation as far as that goes, to help him realize well yeah maybe this is what goes on at home and that may allow him to open up and talk about things that may be going on at home or maybe with some kids at daycare wherever he may be.
Ms. Blickfeldt:
Mostly, he has grown with his attention span, he is able to listen and focus in to the therapist who is reading a story or when he is in an activity. Now he can fold his arms, he can actually look at you, make eye contact and wait his turn; something that he could not do when he first came.
Ms. Sant:
He really is a great little boy. He is so creative and he is caring. He is very caring.
Dr. Goldsmith:
I would say that in six months’ time should be able to enter perhaps a regular education program with some special education support. I don’t anticipate that he is going to be able to walk into a regular education classroom and not need extra help.
Kelly:
The children’s center has helped me a lot because they have taken away the stress but basically they have given me my son back.
Nick
Glenda:
The year before he was in Michelle’s class he had a teacher that every other day was calling me, “Nick did this, Nick did that” and he used to give her a really hard time too. He would come home and say how much he didn’t like her and stuff.
Nick:
I had this teacher and I didn’t really like her. She was rude to me, she always picked on me. Someone would be doing something they would get in trouble and she would get all furious and she would come take it out on me.
Glenda:
Behaviors that got Nick in trouble were goofing off, being a class clown, not doing what he was told, and talking back. Essentially, he was giving the teacher a hard time.
Michelle Bachman:
I met Nick basically when he was a fifth grader. He was struggling with some of the classroom activities. He wasn’t following teacher directions; she was getting frustrated with him. We tried to do some intervention and help the teacher do some intervention in the classroom to see if that would help solve some of the problems, but as the year went on it didn’t. It seemed to get worse. By the end of fifth grade we decided to go ahead and classify him and pull him into a special ed., self-contained unit for what we call behaviorally handicapped kids.
Nick started there with us at the beginning of sixth grade and as with most kids there is a honeymoon period. Nick did very, very well the first few months, but as the year wore on and routine started to set in and having to follow through and do the things that I ask, he started struggling; he started not wanting to comply. Recess started getting hard for him, getting angry with the kids. They wouldn’t be playing right or fair as he usually said and so he felt that it was within his right to grab balls away from them or push or shove or do things to make the situation better for him.
Nick:
Usually someone with a behavior disorder, they would like they would have a real bad temper and stuff and if they really didn’t want to do something, they wouldn’t do it. They didn’t want to live up to anybody else’s expectations.
Ms. Bachman:
I think he mastered a lot of self-control and I think he also mastered being able to look at himself and say what some of the problems were; to self-evaluate himself. Instead of blaming others and criticizing others he was able to say, here is where I went wrong and here is what I can do about it and here is what I am going to start to do about it and he would.
Glenda:
Michelle really enjoyed Nick while he was in her class and it was very helpful to her. He got to do a lot of things and stuff while he was there. It did calm him down a little, but I guess when he got back into Junior High, he decided he wanted to go right back to being himself and goofing off again so...
Vera Naputi:
Nick was non-compliant in the classroom. He had a lot of behaviors in the hallway like running, hitting kids, pushing, and wouldn’t really respond to any verbal redirection. Some of the other things were verbal aggression towards teachers.
Nick:
Well I am doing better this year. I have gotten in trouble a few times but I am starting to learn my lesson. It’s like every other year I am good or I am bad. Last year I was bad so supposedly this year I am going to be good.
Ms. Naputi:
When Nick was in our program, I saw him for math and English and for social studies. He had some different behaviors, but not behaviors that were unmanageable. So in a sense he seemed to not really fit for the program we had planned for him. He is easily redirected verbally, he responds to any sort of criticism, any sort of negative feedback. Following directions, he is more easily directed now.
Because of Nick’s abilities, many of his strengths academically, he really didn’t fit really well into this program. We felt like he needed more of a challenge and so by moving him into the STRONG program it concentrates and puts more of an emphasis on his abilities and what he can do. That’s one of the reasons why we put him in. It’s also a program for individuals who have some behavioral problems as well. It is a different set up and he seems to fit more in there because of his academic strengths.
Nick:
They thought that I was too smart for those special ed. classes, so they sent me inside of this STRONG program. I guess it’s for kids that are supposed to be behavior disordered but they can still do the work on their level. They just felt like that was the right thing for me.
Glenda:
He does, pretty much, have an attitude. He has an attitude at home too, but you know, we know when it’s going to start. So we can say, “Stop it right now!” There are a lot of people that say, “Well you are too strict with him.” If you know a kid well enough you know when the problem is going to start and you just stop it right when it starts and it doesn’t go so far that you can’t control it.
He likes to tease his sister. He says mean things to her, trying to flip her and the normal kid things to do between teenagers and younger kids. That doll is ugly or you are stupid, you know normal. He does it to me too. I think a lot of people in this neighborhood know him from one end to the other because he has done a lot of wandering. He doesn’t hang around here too much.
Yes, I do have some concerns with some of his friends. Some of them are problems and some of them aren’t. I try not to choose Nick’s friends for him and that’s what Nick has said to me, “you shouldn’t try to choose my friends for me.” “I don’t want to choose your friends for you, but I can see this and this kid’s got a problem and he is going to make trouble and I don’t need you getting into trouble as well.”
Ms. Naputi:
The young people’s racquetball program that Nick is a part of is something that is geared for people to build individual strength and by that the whole program is developed to give people individual power over some of the things that they are unable to control. So by recommending Nick for this program it seems like just his motivational level, the way he talks about it and the way he is excited about it seems to fit well with his life right now.
Cindy Jones:
Actually, Nick is doing really well. He started last week so he has been here three different days and we play for two hours each of those days, so he has only put in six hours of time and already he is doing really well.
Nick:
I don’t really know about my future, I haven’t really planned it yet. I am pretty much good in reading, I am on a tenth grade reading level and I’m only in eighth grade.
Ms. Naputi:
Nick’s future? I hope that he will go on and really expand on what he has learned so far and really not rest on natural ability because if he were to push himself Nick’s ability level would show in all areas.
Glenda:
I think Nick has a very bright future, but he has to want it. I keep telling him, “I can’t do it for you. There are things that you have to do for yourself in your life. You can do anything you want to do.”
Amy
Imogene:
When Amy was in 7th grade she began experiencing a lot of trouble with a lot of stomach aches and as time went by even though we had been to our doctor several times, the stomach aches increased in frequency, we went through several testing facilities, we went to a couple of hospitals and many specialists. They couldn’t seem to find out why she had these stomach aches. It progressed to the point where it was interfering with her daily life. She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t sleep. We began having behavior problems at school. The girl that had been the light of my life, the joy of my life was now becoming the problem child at school. I was getting calls, “come get your daughter; she is acting up again. We are having problems. She is not doing the work.” Totally out of control, her life went from beautiful to dismal in a space of about a year and a half. Doctors couldn’t seem to find any reasons for it and so they finally told us we were a dysfunctional family, it was in our heads, it was in her head, and they put her on Prozac. It was about the same time I had accidently discovered she had needed to see another specialist. We had been working with gastro neurologists and surgeons and I took her to an OBGYN specialist and he discovered she has endometriosis and she had a very severe case for her age. That diagnosis was made when she was 15. She has subsequently had surgery. I determined on my own to take her off of the Prozac. Most of the behavioral problems, I feel, were associated with taking the Prozac rather than treating the actual physical disease that she had.
The high school that she was attending refused to admit her after all of the problems she had had even though they knew our story so we transferred to Hillcrest high school to a special program that they have and Amy has been working in that program now for a year and a half and doing quite well.
Dan Penrod:
Amy was referred to my classroom two years ago because of anger control and inability of dealing with adults and authority figures, inability to complete classwork and a number of other behavioral problems. Since she has been at Hillcrest High School in my classroom she has progressed very, very well. In fact so well that right now she attends Jordon Technical Center in the Dental Assisting Program and then comes back in the afternoon and has me for English and has a regular Biology class and in the afternoon she is a teacher helper for one of the Vice Principals and helps out on the electronic sign here at school.
Noel E. Burns:
Deborah Buchanan approached me about Amy coming here and in this externship program that she is in. My past experience has not been really very good with some of the people, because Deborah and I have known her for a number of years we said, “Sure, we’d be glad to help and we would love to have her here.” Amy first came to us in September and at first we were a little bit skeptical about some of the high school kids and she was a little bit reserved when she first started working with us. It wasn’t long before she responded well and she has done extremely well. She has had past knowledge, she is willing to get in words, and she is not afraid to get her hands dirty and she is doing general dentistry here in the office.
Amy:
We do Profies. We do X-rays. We do extractions. We do root canals. Dr. Burns has given me a lot of encouragement that I can do things on my own. He has helped me when I don’t know the answers and I don’t know what I am doing. He explains it to me, he lets me know when I do, do this thing and when I do another thing. He is a neat guy; I like working her with him.
Teacher:
Where are we having problems?
Amy:
I just don’t understand.
Teacher:
Okay, you are looking at an onion root tip.
Wes Wilcken:
Amy in my fifth grade biology class and she has done rather well since the beginning of the year. She got a B+ the first quarter and biology can be rather confusing sometimes because of the language and the different terminology that is used, but she has really worked hard at it and between me and Mr. Penrod we have worked out a good program for her that I think she can be successful at.
Mr. Penrod:
Due to her success at the Jordon Tech Center, she has obtained a job with a dentist in the area and seems to be doing quite well in regards to the school related activities and the one the job training. Amy, over the past two years has progressed well with anger control, being able to talk out some of her feelings, taking responsibility for her actions, and dealing with authority figures in a variety of settings. She still has a few problems in those areas but is at this point pretty willing to change.
The behavior cluster here really does try to work with students in a caring way. We try to remove barriers, if you will, through discussion and through looking for alternatives beyond anger to and discuss other things that can happen in a given situation. I don’t like to see the kids waste time. A lot of time has been wasted before they even get to my classroom and I think there is a lot of ground that has to be made up. If they are genuinely interested in graduating from high school with a high school diploma and getting on with their lives there are just certain behaviors and attitudes that they have to recognize and get under control.
Amy’s Mom:
Now Amy is a capable, well adjusted, fairly happy seventeen year old kid. Two years ago she was withdrawn, she was hostile. She was suicidal. We never knew what was going to come out of her next. She couldn’t eat; she couldn’t sleep, but she has progressed really, really well I think. She is doing very well now. I am so proud of her.