Where the Rubber Meets the Road

The organization ADAPT staged a non-violent sit in at the Whitehouse today in Washington, D.C. For those of you who aren't familiar with ADAPT, it is an organization that advocates for the civil and human rights of the disabled.

This protest was in support of the CCA, or the Community Choice Act. If passed, this act would provide much more support for the disabled to live in their own homes, instead of being shunted into institutions (both large and small).

The current administration has talked a lot about support for the disabled. It's time to see if they're willing to support their words with action. It will take spending some political capital to get lawmakers to sign onto this bill (the disabled, being mostly invisible to lawmakers, are not seen as a significant part of anyone's voting base). Today's action raises the visibility of the disabled, and may be the nudge that lawmakers need to actually act in their constituents best interest.

Instead of having the money flow to people through big agencies and big institutions, the CCA would allow more of the money to follow the individual, such that they could procure assistance in their own home, and remain independent and integrated into their own community.

If you're in the US, contact your own legislator and urge them to pass this bill. For your Senators, the bill number is S. 683. For your House members, the bill number is H.R. 1670. If you're having trouble composing your thoughts, you might want to refer to these talking points that ADAPT has gathered together.

Spring has Sprung

photo credit-Dan Zen
creative commons license

Yesterday it was about 75 degrees Farenheit (24 Celcius) in the lower Midwest. The sky was blue and clear, there was a soft breeze, and no humidity. In short, it was a perfect day. I happened to get out of work early, and treated myself to a late lunch on an outdoor patio of a nearby restaurant.

Today I noticed all sorts of flowering plants, bushes, and trees springing up all over the place. Lillies, redbud, dogwoods, and one of my favorites, the forsythia shown above. The forsythia always seems to just start to peak around Sweet Pea's birthday, which is coming up shortly (she'll be 7).

I'll always associate forsythia with Sweet Pea, as this riotous yellow flowering bush was in full bloom when we went to attend her birth in the city she was born in, and fully in bloom a few weeks later when we brought her back home.

Somehow the explosive, in your face color that screams "Notice Me!!" and "I'm So Cute!" seems thoroughly appropot of our daughter. Sweet Pea is always full of energy, and she is always noticed when she enters a room (whether you'd like her to be or not). Although Sweet Pea is often a bit too loud, a tad too competitive, and a bit too demanding at times, I love her spunk. She has the drive and determination that, when harnessed a bit with maturity, will serve her well in life.

Although a lot of my blogging has to do with Buddy Boy, I just wanted to take a minute and give my second child (the one who I tell every night "You're my favorite girl in the whole wide world") a little bit of ink, too. I can't wait to see what both of my kids grow up to be.

Thinking Outside the Box

photo credit-Shutr
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There are two old sayings that come to mind when I think of seclusion rooms. One's an old Japanese saying-"The nail that sticks up get's hammered down." The other one's a saying that's commonly used in surgery-"When all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

I think that both of these principles have come to govern the use of seclusion and restraints in special education. For too many years, in too many places, children who have occasional outbursts in schools have been seen as disruptions, nuisances, drains on resources, undisciplined, bad, and generally problems to be controlled. And the tools that have been most often resorted to to remedy the situation have been the ones seen to be most expedient-the use of restraints and seclusion rooms.

It was recognized over 50 years ago in psychiatric hospitals that use of seclusion rooms and restraints increased, rather than decreased, the incidence of behaviors. Why, then, does the use of these rooms persist into modern times in schools?

People must use them because they believe it's the best alternative. But what leads them to believe this, and what are the real facts?

In a monograph written for the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders written in 2000, Michael P. George, the author and a special educator, refers to potentially damaging assumptions that he believes are present amongst special educators are the following:

Children with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) come from bad homes, and since we cannot change the homes, we cannot succeed with the children in our schools.

Children with E/BD are incapable of controlling their behavior or regulating their emotions, and it is up to us, the professionals, to control them.

Most children and youth with E/BD are so aggressive and violent they can be educated only in very restrictive settings.

The more serious the misbehavior of the children and youths under our care, the more intrusive and severe our methods must be in treating them.

Seclusion time-out and physical restraint are necessary interventions for the most serious and intractable of these youths.

He then asks the obvious question of how those beliefs guide practices and methods, and concludes that many in the field accept the use of seclusion and restraints because they are believed to be effective. Meanwhile, the obvious side effects of using violence to treat violence (anger, resentment, fear, resistance, feelings of hate, and even death) were being ignored.

George then describes how the culture of the school was changed, which resulted in a year to year difference of a decrease in the use of physical restraints by 69%, and a decrease in the number of minutes spent in seclusion by 77%.

Ryan et al., in an study entitled "Reducing the Use of Seclusion and Restraint in a Day School Program", describes how

The majority of students placed in seclusion during both school years came from elementary and middle school. High school students were rarely placed in time-out during either year (10.7% and 12.4% respectively). Restraints were also performed much more frequently among younger students during both years. During the 2002–2003 school year, the preponderance of all restraints (80.9%) were performed on elementary students. Students in middle school were much less likely to be restrained (14.7%), while high school students rarely (4.4%) experienced this procedure. During the second year, the elementary grades still represented the majority (67.9%) of all restraints performed, while no restraints were performed on high school students.

The median age of those placed in seclusion was 13, while the median age of those restrained was 8, even though the study group included children up through high school (approximately 18 years of age). He attempts to explain these findings thru positing the following possibilities:

1. their possessing fewer mechanisms for coping with frustration,
2. staff may believe intrusive procedures may be more developmentally appropriate for younger children, or
3. that staff may be apprehensive to perform these procedures on larger and stronger individuals.

Whatever the reason, it seems apparent that it's generally considered OK to restrain and abuse kids in special education, especially when they're young.

Dr. Stuart Ablon, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts (yes, the same state that houses the Judge Rotenberg Center) is the Director of a program called "Think:Kids" in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. This program espouses collaborative problem solving (CPS) with kids who have behavior problems, instead of the use of restraints and seclusion rooms. As one might expect from the name, CPS helps kids and adult caretakers work together to resolve problems in a mutually satisfactory manner. They try to identify specific cognitive skills that individuals lack (executive skills, emotional regulation skills, social skills, etc.) and find ways to teach them.

Unlike the assumptions cited above that special educators often have, they teach a different approach based on respect and collaboration. This approach was first laid out by Dr. Ross Greene in the book "The Explosive Child". Dr.'s Ablon and Greene collaborated on another book on the subject, "Treating Explosive Kids". While I'm not too wild about the use of the term "explosive" in the titles of these books to describe kids (are they about to literally blow up?) I am all for the philosophy and recommendations they make in their books.

I've referred before to how Ange is working hard at a grassroots campaign in Missouri against the use of seclusion and restraint rooms. If you haven't stopped by there before, please do and lend her some support. If you haven't signed any of the petitions below, then I would suggest that, too. And if you haven't written or called your lawmakers lately, remember that it might make a difference.


http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/831847137

http://autism.change.org/actions/view/end_the_use_of_aversives_restraints_and_seclusion

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/173391/22317452?m=b9452798

Let them know that there is a different and better way to treat our kids then seclusion and restraint.

Making a Difference, 10 minutes at a Time

photo credit-Half Chinese
creative commons license

I think the internet is great. It's a great way of connecting with people in your community and across the globe. It's big enough that there is space enough for every niche interest imaginable. I also believe that besides connecting with other people, the internet can assist minority groups in advocating for themselves, as happened with protesting the Ransom Notes campaign.

But I also think that the internet has its limitations in effecting change in socieatal attitudes and laws. My personal feeling is that the internet is one tool in a big handbag of ways that can be utilized to change opinions. Should we utilize the internet? You betcha. But I also think that we should also pursue other avenues whenever they present themselves, as well as combine the internet with other methods to gain greater influence than either method might obtain by itself.

The other day I blogged how Ange Hemmer is working to change practices in Missouri schools. She has used the internet to gather parent testimony, but she has also spent countless hours on the phone and in person talking to legislators, state advocates, and reporters, generating several stories in the media that have probably gotten at least some people to reconsider their inner feelings regarding those who are different in society. She's even starting to get some results.

Today I'd like to highlight a young autistic filmmaker named Drew, who's film, "Treasure Diversity" is being screened at the Beloit International Film Festival.

Though the film is only 10 minutes long, the film festivals executive director, Rob Beaudoin said "There is a magic to this film that caused me to think differently about people and about life." After viewing the trailer, I am sure that his reaction is not unique. In addition to being screened at BIFF, Drew's film has been screened not only at other US film festivals, but also festivals as far away as Australia. Not too shabby for a 12 year old kid. His 10 minute movie has the potential to reach thousands, if not tens of thousands of people.

I think we all need to look for opportunities to make a difference in other people's attitudes. We might not be filmmakers, or be able to make the time to travel to our state capitals to lobby legislators, but we all can take the time to write our lawmakers and let them know how we feel, as well as educate people we come into contact with every day. Even if it's not 10 minutes, even 1 or 2 minutes add up over time.

Fighting Restraints and Seclusion

Blogger Ange at http://nomoseclusion.blogspot.com/ has been waging a quiet, persistent campaign against the use of restraints and seclusions in Missouri schools. She's been gathering accounts of children's experiences when put into seclusion rooms in schools, and the people at the Misssouri
Protection and Advocacy Services have taken an interest in this cause. She's also traveled to the state capital to testify regarding pending legislation that would shield teachers from prosecution when they get physical with kids in school.

This week her efforts have really paid off, as she's gotten media attention. Two television stations have aired stories on this this week (one of them on two successive nights), and a popular local radio call in show also took on the topic today.

The local NBC affiliate story can be found here. Do drop by and (respectfully) let them know that it's just not right.

And if you see Ange around here, remember to thank her.

What's Next?

photo credit-crabchick
creative commons license


I don't know whether to feel more like an Egyptian Pharoh or a guy named Job. Either way the past 24 hours have been a little "sucky" around here.

Last night I came home to find that the beautiful 40 foot white pine tree that was in front of our house fell down during the day. The ground has been saturated by the rain, and the tree has been a little lopsided the past couple of years since it lost one major limb in a storm. The good news is that no one got hurt, and the tree fell away from the house, instead of on it. Both very good things. The tree service came today and hauled it away. Don't know what that's going to cost. And we still need to get the stump ground down.

Today I was conducting a workshop at the end of the workday when I got a page to call home. "The basement's flooded!" We had about a foot of water down there. Not from the recent rains we have gotten, but from our sewer line getting clogged up. It's probably been clogged for a couple of days. We don't go down there much, as our laudry machine is on the main floor. 5 hours later and the plumber just left. The waters draining again, but tomorrow he'll be back to snake a video camera down there to see what's what. I'm so looking forward to that. The good news is that the basement of our 128 yeare old house is unfinished, and also has a step in the middle. Only the lower part is flooded so there's half as much to clean up. The furnace is on the flooded side, but is working OK for now. I know what I'll be doing this weekend. If anyone has any tips on disinfecting your basement after it's been flooded, bring them on.

Whatever it is that I've done wrong, G_d, I'm sorry. I'll try to do better. The kids would love the frogs or locusts, but if it's all the same I think I'll pass, if it's OK with you.

Is It Spring Already?

Perhaps it is just cosmic Karma, that if things go well for a period of time, that some negative balance has to happen. Perhaps it's because the weather's been warmer the last couple of days. Perhaps there is absolutely no reason at all, but today Buddy Boy had a major meltdown at school (actually two incidents).

In the morning he got upset about something relatively minor, went to his spot in the class to calm down, then got more upset and was sent to the principal's office, where he calmed down after an hour or so. After lunch and recess, he got upset in math class, jumped on a chair and then a desk, bit himself really hard (he says he didn't want to be agressive against anyone else), then when he was being taken for a walk in the hall started head butting the brick wall. When another teacher started to intervene to try and prevent him from hurting himself, he head butted her. Liz was called and picked him up.

He seemed fairly normal for the rest of the afternoon, completing much of the work he missed by being taken out of school, and expressing remorse over his actions.

Last year Buddy Boy had a bad Spring, which started getting really bad in April, and continued thru May. Like last year, we got lulled into a false sense of security, as everything has been going fairly well for all of us. Now Liz has catapulted herself to Defcon 2, and seemed to be having a flashback from last year when I got home. She was poring over last year's calendar (where she wrote all of last year's problems, observations, med changes, etc.) looking for some inspiration or answer to get us thru this. She found nothing. We wonder out loud if the fact that his class size has gone from 18 at the start of the year to 23 now has changed the dynamic sufficiently to cause such a change. We've had people come in to observe before when Buddy Boy's had problems (the school will let outside "professionals" in to observe, but not parents), but it's hard for someone that doesn't know Buddy Boy's baseline to get a handle on what's happening in a few short hours.

Tomorrow is another day, and I just hope that somehow we can get thru that one, and then another.