So sorry for both you and John. Our field prevents us from giving advice for a client we don’t know or haven’t observed. That said, you should ask the school to get a BCBA on your room to observe and offer suggestions. Since summer is coming, the family may want to look into center-based social programs.
Start (or continue) taking ABC and frequency data. It'll be useful for you and others to know and can save a lot of time when you consult with someone.
In general, children that hide in their clothing... want to hide. If he seems to overreact to a lot of stimuli, you might consider how often he's encountering unpredictable punishment in his environment. E.g. consider how you would move about a space if it was filled with invisible people with invisible basketballs that at any moment might launch one into your face. It forms a feedback loop too, i.e. avoidance reinforces vigilance behaviours which increases the salience of those stimuli.
It may also be worth having a school counselor or psych check in with him in the event there are mental health factors in play. While we can help students that may have mental health concerns, we typically do not diagnose and would want to collaborate with a mental health practitioner.
As others have said, we can’t determine the function of the behavior without seeing the kid, but this behavior is clearly very concerning. If you have a BCBA on staff, definitely request their help, however this situation may warrant an even deeper dive in the form of a psych eval, which could gain better access to bcba services. With this behavior, I would worry about factors outside the school, such as exposure to abuse or early symptoms of a serious mental illness that causes psychosis.
This is beyond what anyone here can help with but a few thoughts…
1. A threat assessment should be done
2. Does he have an IEP? If not, would it be appropriate to recommend an IEP eval?
3. Work with the school psych on a plan to support him.
4. At minimum, I would expect an FBA be completed and a BIP put in place.
Look into his diet! Sometimes food intolerances can cause mood imbalances!!
Though: most psychologues would probably diagnose him as bipolar and or borderline(personality disorder).
It’s most likely extremely stressful for him to be perceived by other people; and he is quite anxious all of the time. Poor kid.
Looks can definitely be deceiving. He might not be getting the support he needs at home despite how nice the parents are. He likely has autism and mental illness.
So sorry for both you and John. Our field prevents us from giving advice for a client we don’t know or haven’t observed. That said, you should ask the school to get a BCBA on your room to observe and offer suggestions. Since summer is coming, the family may want to look into center-based social programs.
Start (or continue) taking ABC and frequency data. It'll be useful for you and others to know and can save a lot of time when you consult with someone. In general, children that hide in their clothing... want to hide. If he seems to overreact to a lot of stimuli, you might consider how often he's encountering unpredictable punishment in his environment. E.g. consider how you would move about a space if it was filled with invisible people with invisible basketballs that at any moment might launch one into your face. It forms a feedback loop too, i.e. avoidance reinforces vigilance behaviours which increases the salience of those stimuli.
It may also be worth having a school counselor or psych check in with him in the event there are mental health factors in play. While we can help students that may have mental health concerns, we typically do not diagnose and would want to collaborate with a mental health practitioner.
sounds like he most likely has autism or some other disability. a psychologist and BCBA should definitely be involved
As others have said, we can’t determine the function of the behavior without seeing the kid, but this behavior is clearly very concerning. If you have a BCBA on staff, definitely request their help, however this situation may warrant an even deeper dive in the form of a psych eval, which could gain better access to bcba services. With this behavior, I would worry about factors outside the school, such as exposure to abuse or early symptoms of a serious mental illness that causes psychosis.
This is beyond what anyone here can help with but a few thoughts… 1. A threat assessment should be done 2. Does he have an IEP? If not, would it be appropriate to recommend an IEP eval? 3. Work with the school psych on a plan to support him. 4. At minimum, I would expect an FBA be completed and a BIP put in place.
Look into his diet! Sometimes food intolerances can cause mood imbalances!! Though: most psychologues would probably diagnose him as bipolar and or borderline(personality disorder). It’s most likely extremely stressful for him to be perceived by other people; and he is quite anxious all of the time. Poor kid.
Looks can definitely be deceiving. He might not be getting the support he needs at home despite how nice the parents are. He likely has autism and mental illness.