'Anxiety in School' video clip

[AquaCouldron]

Hello - I am a long time lurker (just trying to make some sense of my own DC's behaviours) and first off wanted to say how great MNSN is - hats off to so many of you for the huge wealth of information and support which springs forth from here.

Anyway, I was browsing through YouTube (as you do) and came across this clip which covers the issue of how breaktimes in school can be anything but a 'break' for kids on the spectrum. Just posting in case it's interesting / helpful for anyone.

Have just watched this - so interesting - really useful for me as I work with lots of children who are undiagnosed and display really similar behaviours. Thanks!

I was interested by the use of rewards. We often find them to be counter-productive with DS because he can't control himself, then gets doubly frustrated with himself for missing out on the rewards, increasing the likelihood of meltdown (and the same thing in reverse with punishment-type consequences - fear of the consequence just increases his anxiety).

I suppose the key to the reward system in the video was that they split it up into very short time-periods, so that they are more realistically achievable, but conversely if the child misses out on one reward you quickly move onto the next time period with a new chance to earn the reward next time.

(NB: DS has been assessed as not having ASD but does have SPD + anxiety, so some similar issues and behaviour to children with ASD.)

bigTillyMint, glad it was interesting.

Jacksterbear - yes I wondered about what would happen when rewards weren't earned - ie whether that would cause more problems. I've never used reward or punishment systems myself at home - I always thought it would be more trouble than it was worth.

I guess the child here understood that the rewards were fairly easily achievable - and like you say in small time slots. I did like that they really seemed to understand what worked for her (and motivated her) in terms of downtime, and that her 'bad' behaviour was mainly down to anxiety.

We use clear targets and short timeslots and it works pretty well with our children. We do not use punishments, only rewards.

They need something to be very clearly defined in terms of what the positive behaviour is, ie NOT no shouting out, but remember to put your hand up and wait your turn type targets.

Jackster, if your DS is getting frustrated v easily, then you need to make the target more achieveable. Sometimes easier said than done!