Time outs in school

[skewiff]

I am just wondering what people think about time outs being used in schools ...

I am not totally against them - but just wonder if they are effective?

DS has mild CP. Physically he is not too badly affected - he has very minimal use of his left hand and cannot run as fast as the other children. Neither can he climb on any of the apparatus in the playground and I'm sure there are many things he finds it difficult to keep up with/join in with.

I think DS's CP affects his behaviour - but he is my first child and its difficult to know whether his eccentricities are to do with CP or just him.

Since beginning reception in September I think that DS has increasingly been pushing children at school. He never does this out of school and at home or with children out of school is usually very well behaved.

He mainly pushes one child and he tells me its because this boy will not play with him.

School are dealing with it by making him miss some of him playtime (this seems to be every day at the moment) and during that time they make him sit in a different class to him during which all the children in the class point at DS and ask what he has done this time.

I have spoken to the teacher to find out if I can help/ if we can get to the bottom of this. She is not keen on me interfering, I feel. She keeps me at a distance and I never feel I can ask any real questions. She always says 'he is very young and will get the hang of it in the end (meaning how to behave)'.

I arranged a meeting with the teacher and SENCO a while ago to flag up that hemiplegia/cerebral palsy brings with it behaviour and friendship difficulties. I'm not sure whether the information I gave to them in a file has been digested or even read.

I feel like I want to ring the SENCO now and suggest that DS's behaviour is not getting any better and that perhaps time outs are not working for him. I want to suggest that perhaps they talk to him at the time and try to get to the bottom of it.

I have tried this at home (DS is not delayed cognitively) but it is difficult because I am not in school seeing the actual thing happening and afterwards is never as effective, I feel.

Sorry this has turned into a really long post. All I want to know, simply, is - am I interfering too much? Should I just leave the school to it? Will they decide I am an interfering mother if I ring them/ speak to them what feels like yet again?

Thank you.

hi i also worried about time outs when my son joined the infants but usually they are a good thing if the children end up there less but in your case it doesnt seem to be if he keeps getting them and the other children are noticing him being singled out more often from the others and with having cp not being able to do some of the other things the other children are doing he may feel it more. i do feel that you should keep getting onto the school no matter how small an instance to keep an eye on progress to makesure they are doing everything they can to resolve the situation. your son may have got used to the time out and accepted it i might be wrong. does your sons school have place to be it is very good they get time with a counsellor to express their feelings through play and art because children struggle to get there true emotions forward as they do not know the words or how to express them properly. you are never interfereing to much much when you are thinking of your childs whelefare you need to feel that your childs best interests are taken care off he is your child and you need to know he is safe and happy there is nothing wrong with that :0)

Some children love time-out, especially if they have sensory overload problems. If they are clever enough, they'd work out what they need to do to get some quiet time to themselves.

No,, I don't think you are interfering too much. Have the school thought of positive reinforcement instead as this punishment seems not to be working?

My son frequently has time outs at school. They have a light system where his behaviour is marked as green, amber or red. When you go to red you end up on the thinking chair. Theyve found that taking away ds' outside playtime is the only punishment he reacts to and I think slowly but surely we're getting there.

Only problem I have now is ds putting me on the thinking chair when I tell him he can't do something

Probably a 2 pronged approach to this might suit both sides. Chat to the SENco about how to use appropriate sanctions/rewards to help your DS realise that the same behaviour he exhibits outside of school are expected inside school. If it is just with 1 other child - how can this situation be avoided.
As far as timeout goes. if this is the sanction that the school uses for pushing behaviour - then it would be seen by other children as a 'let off' for him and why is your DS not treated as all the others.

DS loves time out and will do anything to get it. It took a while and a LOT of time outs at playtime for them to realise that he just plain cannot cope in unstructured playtime with 200 children. Now he just plain doesnt go out but has time in with senco/ta doing other things. Unfortunately I have yet to persuade them that he still needs social interaction with his peers to learn social skills and coping stratagies and so would make more sense if his structured playtime included one or two others perhaps but on a more "watched level"

Thank you for all of your replies.

I have been thinking about what everyone has said - and yes I think DS is overstimulated when in the company of lots of children.

I was watching him at gymnastics this weekend and he starts off OK, but by the end he is chewing his whole hand and bouncing and wriggling around and right in the faces of all the other children.

I am planning to mention this to school - but want to organise what I'm trying to communicate to them first ...

I reckon that time out is probably useful for DS because he does need some quiet time. But I'm not sure that its fair that he is being punished for being overstimulated ... DS is really not at all bothered by the punishment, so I'm not worried about his future mental health. I just don't want him to feel that he is naughty child, as this is the sort of thing I can imagine then sticking with him for the rest of school.

Is it possible for a teacher to keep an eye on an SN child and when they seem to be becoming overstimulated and chaotic take them somewhere to calm down a bit?

Does he get any 1 to 1?

With ds,he gets movement breaks and 'downtime' - his TA takes him out and do different things - eg, kicking the ball against the wall, listening to music throught he MP3, etc. The aim is to stop him being over-stimulated.

However, this was only implemented after the OT assessed ds and said that he had severe sensory issues which were causing his behavioural issues.

First of all, I think that putting him in time out in a classroom where other children can point at him and ask about him is really not on, IMO. I would be very unhappy if DS2's school did this with him.

DS2 does get some time outs, but generally it is when he is overstimulated and in a quiet area, so he has time to calm down and refocus so they can then discuss the behaviour. He also responds much better to positive reinforcement - time out as a punishment would be useless. Time out as a tool to allow him time to calm and refocus is useful. Subtle difference, I suppose, but there it is.

DS2 has ADHD/DCD, as well as severe sensory problems (along with a few other issues they're still assessing), and being over-stimulated is a daily thing for him. They build times into his schedule, as we do at home, to allow him time away from the classroom to ground him somewhat - it does help.

Don't feel guilty or nervous about talking to the senco or teacher - if you are not comfortable with the way they are handling something, simply tell them and request some other measures be implemented - it is helpful to have some suggestions, if possible.