School meltdowns and behaviour plan ASD

[HattietheManatee]

DS6 has been diagnosed with ASD (Aspergers). It was first suspected in reception when he started having violent outbursts at school. Yr 1 he coped a lot better, but now in Yr2 he is really struggling. He has had 3 violent outbursts in the last week and a bit which have led to the classroom being evacuated and him being excluded for the rest of the day. Triggers have been being forced to work with a partner he doesn't like, and making a mistake in his maths which he hadn't noticed and the teacher trying to get him to work it out again.
The school now want to develop a behaviour plan. I'm a bit worried this might be a way of managing him out, although the school are saying it's so they have the right strategies in place.
Does anyone have experience of developing a behaviour plan with school for a child with autism, and if so, can you give advice? What should it include, and are there any things it shouldn't include, especially to avoid discrimination.

Sorry I’m not much help but we’ve had similar issues, my son has settled down now he’s in Y1 as it’s more much structured then reception.

I’m worried though we might start having issues like this as he gets older so I’m watching with interest!

Does your son have an EHCP? We are currently going through the process.

Yes, there's more group work in Yr 2 which isn't easy for him, he has limited social skills.

We haven't gone for an EHCP yet as the school said last year they felt they could meet his needs within the existing budget. They said this again at the first outburst 10 days ago, but this week after outburst 3 the head said they May need additional support to meet his needs. How are you finding the process? I've only just got over the DLA application!

The teacher has been trying some group work with just one other child & my DS, he is not happy with it either!

Do you think the school would start the ehcp process now that they’ve said that? If not you can always apply anyway. Does your son have any 1-1 support? Do you know if there are any other triggers that could be upsetting him, noise, smells, visuals on the walls etc? Not sure how a behaviour plan works but I think the school need to be sure that it’s not something else first before they go down that road perhaps?

The ehcp process is going well & we’ve been lucky enough to get passed the initial stage with no problems. We’ve had our first meeting with case worker & she seems positive we’ll get to the next stage. Our son has had so many problems since he’s started school that he cannot cope at all with normal school life without a dedication 1-1 & the school has gathered so much evidence that it’s clear as day in the draft plan. I’m still terrified we won’t get the support though!!

Dedicated not dedication!!

We were in a similar situation. As the behaviour got worse in year 2 and the exclusions increased it was a race to get an EHCP and extra funding secured but it takes so long and so many hoops to go through. School supported him as best they could but things got worse. Reduced timetable for months of year 2 and now in year 3, he's out of school completely. School didn't manage him out as such but made it increasingly difficult for us to feel that sending him back would be a good thing. His self esteem and confidence was completely eroded.

A behaviour plan is not a negative thing but a tool to help manage your ds and keep him in mainstream.

What it should do is help staff identify triggers and recognise the warning signs that your ds is about to explode before it happens.

There should also be a strategy for how the staff deal with a meltdown if it occurs but the goal is to prevent the meltdown happening.

For my two a lot of the plan focused on reducing anxiety and sensory problems so things like advanced warning of changes or careful placement in the classroom to minimise touch or sound issues.

There was a bit that listed the non verbal signs that showed the ds's were getting distressed like rocking on the chairs, sucking their ties or violent language or swearing etc etc (there were a lot!). This meant staff could intervene before the explosion happened.

The additional benefit is that it meant behavioural issues were recorded so that we had evidence when we applied for additional support.

Any behaviour plan needs to be ASD-specific, and the school probably needs advice from an educational psychologist or something like Autism Outreach. It will be fine if it is along the lines that OneinEight describes, but if there is any suggestion that it will be based on sanctions or punishments you need to point out that that would be disability discrimination.

There's useful information on the EHCP process on the IPSEA and SOS SEN websites, and SOS SEN do a helpful booklet on EHC assessments.