Yesterday, I got a call at 9:30 asking me to come and pick up Alex. Apparently he was having a massive tantrum and they had to evacuate the classroom for everyone's safety.
Alex has been having problems at school over the last two weeks and there have been a few suggestions that we leave him home for a day to give him a chance to recover. I've resisted, primarily because getting to stay/go home is a reinforcer for bad behaviour but secondarily, I doubted it would work. If a day off would help, then Monday and Tuesday would be better days and that hasn't happened.
However, I didn't think I could argue with them in the moment, so I went and got Alex. He apparently calmed down immediately when told he was going home, which is a bad sign.
I brought him home and did my best to make it a non-fun day. I made him do reading comprehension and writing lessons, made him complete a non-preferred 500 piece puzzle and had him participate in Icon's daily lesson/training session. I also took his favourite toys and put them away until after the school day was done.
I contacted his behaviour therapist and his old teacher for suggestions. We've tried the standard techniques that should have worked but thus far it's not helping. I'm not sure what's triggering this. There have been a lot of personnel changes at the school and apparently one of the other children is also having difficulty. Neither of those seems like it would be enough to trigger this level of outburst, but Alex's old teacher said it might be enough if Alex hasn't bonded to any of the new people yet.
This is the one "go home free" pass that the school gets. After this, I will be fighting it as an option. The teacher has assured me that they've met and regrouped and shouldn't be asking me to do this again.
We'll see what happens.
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