Stress Management

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I have an IEP coming up soon for my son who will be entering junior high in the Fall. He had a couple of episodes of meltdown and self injury this last year and the school finally started paying attention. They are concerned about how he will adapt to the pressures of change and the increased social weirdness that everyone experiences in junior high. I need input on ways I can request that he be given sensory breaks that are scheduled. Last year he was taking care of himself by taking a bathroom break and just sitting there for a while to get away and decompress. Does anyone have a child with such an IEP already in place? How is it working? I have learned from experience that giving him a break after the fact doesn't work. It's got to be proactive and preventative. Thanks.

My son's IEP allows him to leave any classroom at any time and go to the resource room. But his teachers have also now learned to see the signs, and what they actually have been doing when they see him get tense and frustrated is suggest he sit in the hall for a while, until he is ready to come back (the halls are empty between classes). Basically, the answer is yes, these things can be written into the IEP and the teachers can learn to act proactively in helping prevent meltdowns.

My son is pretty oblivious to most of the social wierdness. As long as he isn't directly harassed and no one breaks into his locker, he doesn't seem to know or care what others think of him. He has kids to have lunch with and that is pretty much all he cares about.

Issues, come up, however, when teamwork is required. This will need to be another IEP item, to allow accommodations when teamwork issues come up. We've pretty much played it by ear, but some options should be for the teacher to intervene and give your child a role in the project he can complete on his own and then contribute to the group, or to allow him to become a team of one when that is what he wants. My son is actually relatively (for AS) good at group projects in that he knows what roles will work for him, but it still gets incredibly difficult. Team members will tell him to do one thing, and then change their minds ... stuff like that is impossible for him to deal with, and has caused a lot of stress.

Be aware that the written homework requirements increase a lot, so if your child has any issues with writing (physical, emotional, or acedemic), you will to attack this head on right away. We weren't allowed to cut down the volumn of work since my son was in "advanced" classes for 6th grade (a good reason to avoid them if you are on the borderline with it already), but we were allowed to type as desired, and my son was given an alphasmart.

Thanks for your input. I didn't realize sensory breaks could be that open ended. It would certainly be beneficial for my son to learn to recognize when he needs a break too. I also think that would help with his executive ordering dysfunction.Thanks also for your input on teamwork; I'll be sure to bring it up. It seems a little odd to be having an IEP at one school for another school. At this point I don't know who his teachers will be. Thankfully his speech pathologist has been in touch with the new school. She's the only one who seems somewhat up to date. At the eligibility meeting there were 6 people(myself, the principal, teacher,special ed teacher, speech pathologist and school psychologist) and only the speech pathologist and I had ever even heard of Temple Grandin. They had also thought yelling at my son would snap him out of a meltdown. The success of that little episode is why we are even doing this. That experience woke them up! He probably needs a better advocate than me because I struggle too. My son is 11 and is extremely sensitive about his Asperger's diagnosis. He gets teased because he's quiet and a little standoffish and then he explodes and then off we go! Anyway, thanks again.