Question:

I am in the process of implementing my recommendations for my PDD son who will be entering the high school this fall.  He has within the last few months been getting in trouble at school for not being able to control his anger.  He has had detention for being overheard swearing with talking to his classmates and also talking back to teachers when reprimanded.   Most of his behavior is due to being on growth hormones in conjunction with puberty.  A lot of testosterone.  He is getting detentions for this behavior that he finds difficult to control and partially medical per his neurologist.  

My question is that I want a safe place for my son to cool down so as to not get in trouble with outbursts.  How do I word this into an IEP to get my point across.  It is affecting his self esteem and I think if he had a place to just cool down when he feels overwhelmed it would help.  Thanks so much for your help.


Milena A.
Nashua NH

Answer:

Dear Milena,

While we in the field understand the Alphabet Soup we use, the term PDD may not be understood by all, In fact, the term “PDD”, from my experience, isn’t understood by many people who use it!

PDD stands for the shortened version of Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified. It refers to individuals on the Autism Spectrum who do not demonstrate a sufficient number of the characteristics necessary for a diagnosis of Autism or Asperger’s Disorder but who show impairment in social interactions, communication, and/or behavior that affect their daily lives. It is a milder form of Autism and the most often diagnosed inaccurately because there are no agreed upon number and specific diagnostic indicators.

Ask A Specialist is just starting a page on Autism. Check it out: Autism Spectrum Disorder. However, there will still be times when it is hard to determine if a question belongs to the Behavior section or the Autism section since they often overlap. In addition, it’s a good time to think about goals for his transition plan even if he is too young to require one just now. We have a Transition page too and it has a tremendous amount of helpful information re: the needs and rights of secondary students. Check it out at http://www.askaspecialist.ca.gov/trans.htm

Now, about your son. I have often found that adolescent students with PDD seem to be going along just fine and then all of a sudden there’s an explosion no one anticipated. I refer to this as the PDD-NOS crisis cycle:

• He reacts rigidly
• has a difficult time seeing things from another’s perspective.
• may experience some difficulty processing and using language
• liable to misinterpret non-verbal social cues
• cannot let go of perceived mistreatment
• anxiety is triggered and he cannot think very clearly

Does this sound like your son? And, I agree that the onset of puberty is a contributing factor.

In California, most districts would most likely develop a behavior plan to support him with this difficulty. In addition to teaching him better ways to express anger, the team develops ways of modifying the environment to reduce the situations that make him angry (reduce, not eliminate of course, because life cannot always be modified) and to create more supportive environments for him when he is angry. A safe place to go would be a logical environmental change, and teaching him to recognize when he is becoming angry and requesitng to go there would be new skills for him to learn.

I suggest that your son’s IEP contain a behavior plan. This is the perfect vehicle to deal with all aspects of his increasing his abiltiy to control his anger, including providing a safe place for him to cool down. Because it is a part of his IEP, progress is assessed and if he isn’t making progress, new techniques, better reinforcement and communication, and different ways to react to his expressions of anger could be developed.

I don’t think the wording is the issue as much as how a safe “Time-Away” place fits within the context of providing a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment to an adolescent student with autism and medical needs (i.e., the side effects of growth hormones). In other words, you are stating what his special needs are and requesting the supports to meet these special needs.

Clearly you are a wonderful advocate for your son, and I think your request is both reasonable and correct. Good luck!

Resource for writing behavior plans (in CA they are called Behavior Support Plans or BSPs) can be found at http://www.pent.ca.gov/behplan.htm

Schwab has many nice resources for parents on working with IEP teams as well as information about the IEP and transition:

http://promosearch.schwablearning.org/search/promosearch/?sp_a=sp1000fad7&sp_f=ISO-8859-1&sp-q-9=spkkeyword&sp-i-9=-1&sp-q-required-9=0&sp-x-1=sl_gradelevel&sp_q=iep&sp-q-1=high