Sudden Aggression

[Maria Mendi]

Since we’ve had my son’s Initial IEP, they rejected my request for a 1:1 aide. Since then he’s been having weekly episodes of aggression at school—and he hasn’t been aggressive before. He was recent diagnosed with Autism and ADHD and is minimally verbal. He’s assaulted classmates and a teacher and I truly feel that with a 1:1 aide, it would minimize these meltdowns. Has anyone experienced sudden aggression in their little on? Any advice would be very helpful. I’m just scared that if this continues he would be pulled from the general classroom. 

[Jenna]

Have you touched base with your pediatrician to make sure there's nothing medical going on with illness/disability/med changes/etc. that could be causing this? What has the school said about the recent aggression at school? If behavioral challenges are impacting your child's, or other children's education, schools can perform a functional behavioral assessment to determine why this behavior is happening and how to prevent it. For more on FBAs, see https://adayinourshoes.com/behavior-iep-special-education/.

[Lisa Lightner]

Having a 1:1 aide can be preventative or reactive.

I'd work on creating an environment for him where he doesn't want to lash out at others.

[JSD24]

My thought...well I have 2 of them.  1st is to request an FBA.  You want to know what the antecedent is and see about addressing it.  There is a medical condition that comes to my mind (my 2nd thought) when there is abrupt change in a child's behavior.  It's not accepted by every medical professional so it's often not diagnosed easily/quickly.  The condition is PANDAS or PANS.  Since the behavior isn't all/most of the time it's less likely to be medical.  I'm guessing that something is triggering him at school and hopefully the FBA will get to the bottom of it.

[Maria Mendi]

Thank you. He’s communicated to me “bully” and mimicked their gestures of laughing at him, pointing, and saying he is a bad kid. I will read into FBA and request for one, for sure! I think because his autism prevents him from picking up on social cues that may be causing the taunting from his peers. 

[Jenna]

I'm so sorry to hear that he's being bullied. Lisa has some advocacy tips for dealing with bullying at https://adayinourshoes.com/bullying-school-stop-bullying-happening/. I hope these are helpful and that the bullying stops immediately.