At my Service Learning site, I work with a boy who has Autism. He can be the smiling and laughing while doing his math facts at one moment, and may be kicking, screaming and crying at the next. One thing that I have had difficulty with at my site is how to calm down my student when he is having a temper tantrum. I have tried to calm him down with words, through redirection, and of course with the help of other staff members who have worked with him for quite some time and therefore know what tends to alleviate the situation. I have found that it is very hard to calm him down without further disrupting the rest of the class, especially after he has already captured the attention of every person in the room. His summer school teacher recommends taking him for walks through the halls when he is having a temper tantrum, which seems to quickly turn his mood around. While leading my student out of the classroom and into the empty hallway, I wondered it was the right choice. I felt like he should have stayed in his class with the other kids, and I felt like by secluding him from the regular classroom, the other staff and I were not providing him with the most integrated and least restrictive environment. After reading the following article, I realize that going for walks is actually a great way to calm down a child with Autism because it gets him/her away from the cause of the tantrum. Because people with Autism often have difficulties with communicating and expressing their feelings, it is important to try to understand over time what triggers their tantrums. Once triggers are known, caregivers and others who work with the child will be able to avoid meltdowns by simply avoiding the triggers. http://www.brighthubeducation.com/special-ed-neurological-disorders/34139-how-to-deal-with-temper-tantrums-in-children-with-autism/?cid=parsely_rec |