She said she was frustrated. That was a good thing.
@GardenGerty (160708)
United States
September 16, 2017 12:29pm CST
I do not go into too many details about the children I work with, but I want to share this.
The ten year old young lady has a lot of inappropriate anger responses. She hits things, and hits herself, and yells and screams. Ask her why, and she says she is "mad". Not angry or anything else, just "mad". She also is short of patience and a frequent phrase is "I can't wait". We swim in the afternoon and she literally feels she is not able to wait until then, by nine in the morning. She hates September because it is not October for Halloween. No logic or reasoning ability at all.
When we have the anger outbursts the lead teacher has been sitting with her, discussing her feelings, and naming different emotions. Like "you are frustrated because such and such is hard."
Yesterday we passed her last year's homeroom teacher, another teacher and the principal in a serious conversation. These two teachers always greet her, hug her, joke with her and make her feel good. She wanted that attention, and it was not appropriate at that time. Mrs. Baldwin greeted her, told her, "I'm sorry, I am not able to talk right now, maybe later." That set off the stomping and grumbling and angry voice. We had not gone far when the student looked at me and said "I am frustrated, I wanted her to give me a hug". WOW!
Another nice thing is our head custodian came by and gave her a big hug at that time.
We praised this student for knowing what the problem was. It was a HUGE step for her.
It was a good thing.
12 people like this
13 responses
@andriaperry (116936)
• Anniston, Alabama
16 Sep 17
That is wonderful! Maybe this year she will learn how to handle life better.
6 people like this
@GardenGerty (160708)
• United States
16 Sep 17
She has begun improving. I spend the most difficult half of the day with her, and it is good to end the day thinking about her improvements.
2 people like this
@GardenGerty (160708)
• United States
16 Sep 17
Yes. In the past she just would get raging mad, and slam her hand into the wall or hit herself or whatever. This was more appropriate for a young adult.
4 people like this
@GardenGerty (160708)
• United States
16 Sep 17
I know. I am not Martha either. I wonder if she would even know how to deal with these behaviors.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (79929)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
16 Sep 17
Sounds like an awful lot of patience and understanding will be required with her.
2 people like this
@GardenGerty (160708)
• United States
16 Sep 17
We have only three students in our caseload but they are high demand students. Yes, some days we have to take turns being the patient ones.
3 people like this
@Nuelite17 (104)
•
16 Sep 17
The first wayout of every Suitation or Problem is identifying you have a problem and desire a need for change. Kudos for helping her through 
@GardenGerty (160708)
• United States
16 Sep 17
It is very hard for special needs children to identify what their feelings are, so it is great that she is learning this.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (167071)
• Boise, Idaho
16 Sep 17
Voicing it was so good. A really huge step.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160708)
• United States
17 Sep 17
Yes it is huge and I am sure you understand how explosive children can be.
1 person likes this
@Srbageldog (7716)
• United States
17 Sep 17
That is a very good thing! Hopefully she will continue to make progress in being able to recognize her emotions and why she's having them.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160708)
• United States
17 Sep 17
I think this would benefit many of us.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160708)
• United States
17 Sep 17
We will also hope she will be less easily frustrated.
1 person likes this
@spiderdust (14760)
• San Jose, California
16 Sep 17
That's a tremendous step for her, being able to voice her frustration and the reason why!
@GardenGerty (160708)
• United States
16 Sep 17
I am sorry if I confused you. This is a mentally handicapped young lady and usually she is hard to deal with. Already this month however, she has learned what her bad feelings are and how to express them. That is why it is a good thing she said that.
2 people like this
