Hello,
It has been a while since I have been to this forum, I miss it! I am here as I continue to do battle year after year with the school system. My son's complexity requires such specific interventions at school and they are a one size fits all situation. However I am determined still to try and make it work because ironically, despite his severe issues, my son does SO poorly around kids with the same issues! He acts and feels MUCH better on the whole with kids who have better social skills. He falls apart around kids who act aggressive etc. It is ironic but true. He cant be around kids like him day after day, he starts to act out with them, get angry at them for not responding appropriately to him, etc.
Anyhow, I am wanting to find info on what I am calling "therapeutic curiculum". In other words, at our public schools there is really no mental health support. There are autism classes (my son is Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) not otherwise specified on the spectrum along with major mood, emotional, self etseem, immaturity, and severe impulsiveness issues) but they even are mediocre in terms of teaching the kids social skills and coping skills and they do NOTHING regarding mental issues such as impulsivity, mood, irrational problems. I have worked some mental health type things into his IEP but it never manifests in much day to day. What I am looking to do now is find some therapeutic model such as one would have in place maybe in a private school or residential facility to introducde to the school district and try and get it into my son's IEP.
My son needs so much help, he is so extremely emotionally labile, he misperceives his peers alll day ("you hate me" when some kid doesnt answer him quickly enough or doesnt want to play with him one day etc), is irrational, extremely oversensitive, peers and adults must respond and act a very specific way or he becomes unhinged, he is very depressed with lots of self hatred and biting self, low self etseem, and very immature/emotionally delayed. He is also impulsive and has little to no coping skills emotionally and poor self regulation. also his skills go up and down dependent on how unstable he is. I KNOW there are private facilities out there across the country that are "therapeutic" and address these issues and teach the skills needed. My son also has the autism side of things where though he is super friendly and social and hates to be alone, he has personal space issues, wants everyone to love him and doesnt understand when they dont, and need social skills interventions.
Does anyone know of a program or programs (curiculums) that I could look into? For example when he was very little we learned about Love and Logic and that was helpful. We love ross Greene and The Explosive Child idea of how these kids need to be taught the lagging emotional and cognitive skills (coping, self regulation, thinking clearly, working through irrational thoughts), BUT he never says HOW to teach the skills. Thats the part I need to find, there must be some programs out there.
Now at this stage, 12 yrs old and starting middle school next fall, we need something geared toward mental health issues, some program I can introduce at the IEP and ask to be implemented for my son either with an aide or having the teachers trained etc. Any knoweldge of ideas of how to search tihis is appreciated. ALSO comments about what you have in place for your child at school would be helpful. Thank you!
It has been a while since I have been to this forum, I miss it! I am here as I continue to do battle year after year with the school system. My son's complexity requires such specific interventions at school and they are a one size fits all situation. However I am determined still to try and make it work because ironically, despite his severe issues, my son does SO poorly around kids with the same issues! He acts and feels MUCH better on the whole with kids who have better social skills. He falls apart around kids who act aggressive etc. It is ironic but true. He cant be around kids like him day after day, he starts to act out with them, get angry at them for not responding appropriately to him, etc.
Anyhow, I am wanting to find info on what I am calling "therapeutic curiculum". In other words, at our public schools there is really no mental health support. There are autism classes (my son is Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) not otherwise specified on the spectrum along with major mood, emotional, self etseem, immaturity, and severe impulsiveness issues) but they even are mediocre in terms of teaching the kids social skills and coping skills and they do NOTHING regarding mental issues such as impulsivity, mood, irrational problems. I have worked some mental health type things into his IEP but it never manifests in much day to day. What I am looking to do now is find some therapeutic model such as one would have in place maybe in a private school or residential facility to introducde to the school district and try and get it into my son's IEP.
My son needs so much help, he is so extremely emotionally labile, he misperceives his peers alll day ("you hate me" when some kid doesnt answer him quickly enough or doesnt want to play with him one day etc), is irrational, extremely oversensitive, peers and adults must respond and act a very specific way or he becomes unhinged, he is very depressed with lots of self hatred and biting self, low self etseem, and very immature/emotionally delayed. He is also impulsive and has little to no coping skills emotionally and poor self regulation. also his skills go up and down dependent on how unstable he is. I KNOW there are private facilities out there across the country that are "therapeutic" and address these issues and teach the skills needed. My son also has the autism side of things where though he is super friendly and social and hates to be alone, he has personal space issues, wants everyone to love him and doesnt understand when they dont, and need social skills interventions.
Does anyone know of a program or programs (curiculums) that I could look into? For example when he was very little we learned about Love and Logic and that was helpful. We love ross Greene and The Explosive Child idea of how these kids need to be taught the lagging emotional and cognitive skills (coping, self regulation, thinking clearly, working through irrational thoughts), BUT he never says HOW to teach the skills. Thats the part I need to find, there must be some programs out there.
Now at this stage, 12 yrs old and starting middle school next fall, we need something geared toward mental health issues, some program I can introduce at the IEP and ask to be implemented for my son either with an aide or having the teachers trained etc. Any knoweldge of ideas of how to search tihis is appreciated. ALSO comments about what you have in place for your child at school would be helpful. Thank you!