His Teacher Put Him in a BOX...

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Thanks for the followup article, Eureka. It explained some things but raised more questions. What a mess. This really bothered me:

"Clinical psychologist B.J. Freeman, an autism expert at the UCLA School of Medicine, said children with autism "know how to push every button known to God,""

It kind of hurt. I don't think I ever intended to push anyone's button when I was a kid. I know people lost patience with me but I never sought to upset people on purpose. What the heck? This guy is an autism expert.

Maybe this is something for another topic.

I'm ok with that until I get to the part where his mother was clueless. I had a child that had difficulty with reading on time. They had meetings about every little thing and I had to sign papers saying I'd been informed about their decisions concerning my child. If I were a public school teacher and I was going to put a child in a box, I'd be damned sure I discussed it with his mother first - signed and dated.

I live in California though, so maybe it's different elsewhere. CA is a very litigious state.

Some people should not be teachers, and some people should not go anywhere near special ed. Here in Austin, Texas, salaries for teachers are actually better than for many other professions available to women (close to $ 50K starting salary). There are a whole lot of very smart teachers as a result, but I think that there are also some people that get into teaching for the money or choose special ed because it is easier to find a position. (With relatively high salaries for women and high unemployment, there are more teachers than positions).

Another problem is tenure. In my son's school district, between tenure (often after three years) and the teacher's union, some bad eggs with experience are hard to eliminate.

Weak central supervision of special ed programs here is another very big problem. The central office is understaffed, and teachers are often left to run their own classrooms to the best of their abilities unless there is a parent complaint.

Ugh. I missed this part, makes me mad, too - it's kind of like when people ask you "Is he a good baby?" Who on earth classifies babies into "good" and "bad?" They're babies, for crying out loud!

Yeah, what a misstatement by the supposed expert - yes ALL of my buttons are pushed sometimes when I am dealing with my son but I truly believe, like unduki said, that my son is not intending to push them and quite frankly, I as the adult in the situation, should have more control over my emotions and should not allow my buttons to be pushed. Does the behavior of ASD children push peoples' buttons? Yes. Do they "know how to push" peoples' buttons? Most of the time, I think not.

You can push buttons unintentionally. I wonder if that is what he meant or did he mean they do it on purpose?

That's an interesting wonderment, League Girl. I looked the guy up on google and sent him an email asking for clarification.

I just looked the phrase up and it does mean doing it intentionally but when someone told me I pushed someone's buttons, it was unintentional. But yet she was saying she knew I didn't mean it. So I got the idea you can do it unintentionally and it doesn't have to be on purpose. Either the phrase gets misused or it means both.

I think what bothered me about the guy's statement was not the "push buttons" part of it but the "know how to" part. This is what says to me that he doesn't get the fact that most of the time when ASD kids are doing something that pushes someone's buttons the child's intention is not to piss the person off but simply to get their own needs met or because they lack control over their emotional responses.

I'm with you, Bombaloo, but here is what J.B. Freeman replied:

"I Absolutely was not implying thAt it is intential. I was trying to make the poi
T that districts fail to train teachers
Everything thAt was done to this child was wrong. I would never condon what was done and consider it to be abusive. I hope this clarifies my position. Bj

Sent from my iPhone"



Take it for what you will...

I think its good for ASD kids to have a quiet place and I admit to talking in class when I wasnt supposed to to get sent out to the darkened hallway where I got to sit on the floor and it was quiet, dark and I liked the way the floor felt, smooth and cool. That doctor could have construed what I used to do as "Pushing buttons" or otherwise, as I see it "manipulating".....I was in pain from the lights, the noise, the other children staring at me and poking me with pencils when the teacher wasnt looking. It was how I knew how to get away from it all.
If I said to my teacher "the lights hurt me"....she would have laughed at me. These so called specialists need to see our side too. Also I think they are making the Mother out to sound as if she is over reacting. They mentioned the teacher throwing away his markers....my daughter would have freaked out if someone did that to her. What other things happened. Obviously the Mom was trying to protect her son...maybe she had been pushed too far.
Obviously the boy liked his box and maybe he didnt care if the other kids made fun of him, maybe he did. Maybe this boy needs an aide that could take him to another room which was dark and quiet or where his box was.

I know if I was a kid in a cardboard box in the classroom the kids would be laughing at me and they would make fun of me. I was promised that my daughter had a quiet place to go but her aide never set this up for her and she still expects my daughter to "ask " for things.....she wouldnt need an aide if she could ask for things!

I can't even READ that article. The title alone tells me that it's horrific.