Recently, a 17-year- old male with developmental/behavioral disabilities was arrested at his school in Texas. He is being charged as a adult for assault. He may have assaulted a teacher or school staff. According to his parents, his intellectual skills are that of a 12 year old and he is treated in inpatient mental health facility every few months. Yesterday was the last day of April. This was also the last day of Occupational Therapy and Autism Awareness Month. As an Occupational Therapist, this article caught my attention because I work with children and young adults with disabilities. This story is disheartening to hear because I can’t imagine any of the children I work with being arrested. But on the other hand, there is a conversation that needs to be happen in regards to this.
I’m sure most of you know someone who has a developmental disability or mental illness. You may be the parent, family member, or friend to someone. The numbers show that 1 in 31 children are being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) today. For mental or behavioral health conditions, the numbers are 1 in 7 children ages 3 to 17. After working with this population for little over 10 years now, I have seen the changes of children with these conditions. In the beginning I may have worked with about 2 out of 15 children who had higher aggressive behaviors. Now, I can say that number is about 5 out of 15. This number is steadily increasing and it changes the motivation of staff working because it can be exhausting and dangerous.
Having a child with disabilities is not easy and we should all be empathetic to the situation. Now, as someone who only works with these children, I spend an increased amount of time each day with them along with my co-workers. We can be considered secondary parents at this point. I think I can speak on topic a little. I must say we are going towards a state of emergency and I think there are three things that have played a role.
- Technology: Many of the children are heavily involved with technology and often spend most of their free time engaged with it at home. If school and therapy are the only times in which they are not using technology, then you will have more resistance to engaging in non preferred activities. This can then lead to negative behaviors such as tantrums or even hitting when not given devices on demand. There is an addiction factor that is taking place and this can be seen in those of us who do not have a disability as well. Some of my children will have a full meltdown when a tablet is gradually removed in replace of learning. I do no use technology such as this during my sessions. I use toys as rewards, but play is becoming a dying component in early childhood in the home.
- Collaboration: There was a time where we had great parent involvement. When it came to suggesting activities and giving recommendations, we used to feel like a team. The parents would try some of these suggestions and give us feedback on what worked and what did not outside of school structure. Today, we either get asked a question or get complaints about behaviors or reduced skills in a specific area. We give information. Then the same questions get again later or the parent just refuses to try. This cycle often repeats itself. With collaboration, the questions would not be repeated so much but rather become follow ups. With collaboration, the behavior changes will be more significant in the positive direction. I’ve been attached for telling a child “no” or “stop” with a negative behavior
- Trauma: There is still so much we don’t know in regards to the home life. I’ve had children who had lice issues for an extended period without being fully resolved. I’ve had children coming in with dirty clothing while the rest of the family appeared clean. There are students not being bathed regularly. These are mild situations that you can’t report to social services, but these are all events that can cause unexpected trauma for the children. I can remember us as a staff having to persuade a parent to return their child to in person learning during COVID times because she was being too hard on him remotely with yelling.
There are so many conversations that need to happen in regards to the teamwork between the parents and staff working with children. Beings aggressively attacked is not something anyone should have to go through. In the case of the teenager in Texas, I hope his story is blasted because as I mentioned a state of emergency will take place soon if these issues are not addressed.