AS kids and agression

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AJS dad~ what sort of behavior support plan do they have for him now ?

Well, there is an aide who has had at least some ABA training. She is not officially a shadow that is assigned to him but she was hired specifically to attend primarily to my son. This is a class of 33 kids. THis is allowed by law because kindergarten is not a requirement(something I just learned this year). There are 1 or 2 other kids that are diagnosed and another 1 or 2 that need one. So I feel for the teacher to some degree.
Anyway, when he is off topic or "bothering" other kids by invading their space or mimicking. He is redirected, given quiet time or even taken outside for a walk with the aide. I wish we could afford a private school or homeschool because even after so many meetings, phone calls and notes back and forth to the school, they still just don't seem to get it - that is his teacher and pricipal don't. His teacher complained to my wife last week that he mimics a lot. Has she not been listening to a word we've said over the past 5 months?! mimicking is 70% of his language. He's not making fun of anyone but repeats phrases he hears from books and videos or even other people. I think she honestly expected he would be just like all the other NT's in her class by now and was frustrated.
Other parents of kids like AJ have told us that we should expect better things after he reaches 1st grade and class sizes are much smaller as mandated by law but even then the teachers are hit and miss. There is a great private school near where we live that caters to kids on the spectrum but they only take 6-12 grade. We'll be saving our pennies so he can go there in 5 years.

Well I never hit a teacher, but I did punch my softball coach and hit a few classmates. In many ways it was done as an alternative to saying something that I felt I couldn't say without sounding upset, or felt I wouldn't be believed.


I do remember one occasion when I was about 14, I complained about something messing up my hair and a friend said something like "Why do you care? You never comb your hair anyway." This was done as i was brushing my hair. I thought I could either say "Yes I do" or hit her. So I whacked her with the brush that was in my hand. She later explained to me she didn't mean I didn't brush my hair, she meant I didn't fix it up/curl it, etc. I don't think I ever apologised

I don't know where you live but here in AZ the class sizes are not mandated to be less than 30 students. My son's 2nd grade class went from 23 to 31 in a day without telling us they would do it. His "behaviors" mainly stem from being in an overcrowded room with noisy kids that also have IEPs and are underserved.

You do need to come up with a strict plan about "hurting' with your son. It took a while, but working with the school and at home, we got the tantrums, meltdowns and hurting down. Of course, coming to AZ changed all that. But at least my son has a baseline of expected behavior and we did that without medications. It was very hard work with all sorts of experts telling us to medicate him. But 6 is just too young to start with such heavy drugs. I don't think we would have gotten this far.

You know that with speech delay, a lot of aural input can be just noise. They know someone is talking to them and may be angry but they can't process fast enough to understand the words or meanings.

somehow you need to impress upon them what matters most at this moment....and it sounds like working on eliminating aggressive behaviors should be the top priority. what sort of things set him off ? is the teacher really aware of what sets him off ? what about positive reinforcement for positive behavior - this could perhaps help him focus on wanting to work on behaving in an appropriate manner. learn to advocate for himself ( over time).....