Anyone work in SEN and had experience of positive handling?

[Mustrum]

This term I have been assigned 1-1 to support a child in KS1 who has no diagnosed SEN but has extreme difficulty coping with the classroom environment. (Obviously I'm not going to give any more details about the child.)

A few days into the assignment I had to physically restrain the child. The whole episode lasted about an hour and other members of staff were involved. I was withdrawn from supporting the child while the situation was reassessed. This was not punitive. Next week I will be working with them again.

At first I felt that I could have handled the situation better, and avoided reaching the point were restraint became the only option. My colleagues are not of that opinion - at least, not to my face. They feel that, if I did make mistakes, they were reasonable mistakes given the circumstances.

Over the past week, however, I have come to the conclusion that, in fact, my actions were irrelevant. The child was going to behave that way whatever happened and whoever they were with. It was unavoidable, and I was just the lucky or unlucky person who was there at that moment. Everything I did was containment and damage-limitation.

What I'm struggling with is: is this an arrogant attitude? Am I swerving my responsibility?

[IJoinedJustToPostThis]

Sorry I missed the memo about your TT training...

[TheFallenMadonna]

You said the child has difficulty coping in the classroom, which is what made me think that the child was distressed. Maybe stressed would be better, as I don't mean upset. My experience is with secondary students, but none of our students who have require restraint (and we are a medium risk setting - Alternative Provision) are simply trying to manipulate the situation, even if they might appear to be making choices about their behaviour.

[flippit81]

Were your actions reasonable, proportionate and necessary?

[IJoinedJustToPostThis]

Can't honestly say whether your attitude is arrogant or not - I wasn't there, I don't know what happened. I've met some incredible people working with SEN, and very unfortunately, some not-so-incredible ones.

Anyway, I would now focus on how you will reintroduce yourself back to the child, making sure you set up a positive atmosphere right from the get-go, not dwelling on the past.

[HangingRoundInABofAlorsStance]

Without knowing the details of incident, all you can do is remain consistent in your approach. Cajoling will only bring you so far. Same as flat out bribery be it gold stars or sweeties. The behaviour will happen again so you need your own monitoring sheets to identify triggers in the child (tired, hungry, provoked, noise levels, frustrated, ease or difficulty of work, ability to access it, equipment etc)
A sheet with time of day, problem/request and action/how solved, is way to go to see patterns. Capitulation won't work with PDA long-term ime but you can choose your battles, offer semblance of control with a or b choices, or agree to the request at a later date/will notify parent etc

I would be using something like this with the child
i.pinimg.com/736x/0e/00/22/0e002287b8da4561849a1f670a99b2b5--weekly-behavior-charts-classroom-behavior-chart.jpg
and I downloaded the buzzy bee circles for my kid
firstgraderatlast.blogspot.de/2012/09/blog-post.html

He likes to hole punch so 20 positives on a circle means he uses my puncher 20 times - if you are short on resources then a circle could be used for 1 punch per good day means it lasts 4 weeks m-f
but realistically noone has a completely good day so maybe one a week - up to 4 holes a day for the classroom/breaks.

[PenguinsandPandas]

I'm a Mum of a 11 year old boy with SEN who struggled very badly with the classroom for 2 years but now is fine - in y5 / y6.

When he was having a bad time a desk outside the classroom on which he was allowed to have soft toys helped a lot. What didn't help was a teacher who thought it was all behaviour and a male teacher who thought being strict and restraining him was the answer. I can see how they got to that point though but once into y5/y6 completely calmed down with teachers treating it as autism and we have had no problems for almost 2 years now after weekly battles. You also be very careful not to reward the behaviour - take him somewhere to calm down but not stimulate him. So a library not a sensory room. It's difficult and I understand people restraining but you need a different solution, it should be an absolute emergency only. It maybe completely different in this child's case but just thought I'ld say as we went through 2 years before finding a solution.

[WORKWORKWORKWORKWORKWORK]

The restraint paperwork filled in should have made you reflect on what it is you could have done to de-escalate in the future. As long as SLT are writing this into their my plan then that should be enough for now.

I had to restrain a little boy the other week & it was not a nice experience even though I’m Team teach trained. I kept rethinking what I did to lead up to it but at the end of a day if a child is in crisis & could harm themselves or others, then it is necessary, appropriate & proportionate to the situation.

It’s not nice but restraining isn’t painful for the child, at least it shouldn’t be if we’re doing it right.

[Mustrum]

Were your actions reasonable, proportionate and necessary?

Yes. Doesn't mean I am happy with them.

[IJoinedJustToPostThis]

Never, never, never use restraint as a punishment.

[IJoinedJustToPostThis]

What do you think you could have done differently?

[HangingRoundInABofAlorsStance]

Sorry, teaching you to suck eggs with the training you have
Manipulating is a way of child trying to control a situation they have anxiety in though - PDA kids are experts at it but totally warrant sympathy as it must be bloody exhausting trying to control every second of every minute of every hour of your day and still being misunderstood as naughty, spoilt or having no boundaries or attachment projecting much

[PenguinsandPandas]

The ideal solution is not to get to angry but that can be hard but my DS is best ignored at school when angry. He never gets angry at home, watches Bambi and cuddles soft toys, very happy in his own world and very kind and thoughtful. Obviously can't always ignore if its a risk to others. But there's absolutely no point talking to him when he's angry at school. Taking him outside, for a walk etc helps.

[WORKWORKWORKWORKWORKWORK]

Ps it’s not arrogant to come to the realisation you did the right thing. You need to be confident in your decisions. If you were still unconfident about them I would’ve suggested refresher training.

[Mustrum]

No egg-sucking here Training is all very well, but real life is another matter. I always worry that I might have forgotten something.

[Mustrum]

I am reading and reflecting on every post BTW but not necessarily answering every question because I feel my responses might be too identifying. Suffice to say that many of the suggestions and questions are things we already put into place.

[flippit81]

I know Mustram. Sometimes it can feel very uncomfortable. SEN teaching can be emotionally challenging. Take time to reflect upon what needs to be in place for next time. Can you ask your manager for a debriefing session ?

[hockityponktas]

So I'm assuming by that reply that you've identified triggers and strategies and that in this situation had implemented everything possible.
It sounds like you know what you are doing and although you don't like it you had no choice but to restrain. It sucks but it happens.
You are absolutely not arrogant to take the attitude you have (otherwise you wouldn't be asking!) and no you're not swerving your responsibilities so long as you are trying everything else possible.
You mention a quiet meltdown space where you can safely ignore. Is there no possibility of this whatsoever? An enclosed out door space even? Sick room? Meeting room? The school should really be trying to accommodate that if it's going to help the child, you and others stay safe
. for you, it's a tough job

[ThatsWotSheSaid]

You restrained for an hour.
If the child's behaviour was so bad that he was such an extreme danger to himself or others that he had to be restrained for an hour he is not having his needs met at that school. He needs a school with safe spaces. I work in an SEN school and have never known a restraint to last more than a few seconds to get a child away or remove other children and we have very extreme challenging behaviour.

[jammydodge]

'the child was categorically not distressed. They were focused on manipulating the situation'

Why have you made this assumption? Who has assessed the child?

[Mustrum]

Not an assumption. Colleagues who were present during the antecedent, during the restraint and those who took over once the child was in a safe space, all of whom are more experienced than me, all independently debriefed, all appraised the child's state of mind in the same way.

ThatsWot RTFT.

[lorisparkle]

I have worked with children who display some severely challenging behaviour for 20 years and rarely have I restrained. We luckily have a safe place for them to be escorted to. My main concern after any incident which requires physical intervention is thinking what do we need to put in place to prevent this happening in the future. What communication strategies do we need to use or teach the child, what changes to the environment do we need to put in place, etc. All the children in my class have a positive support plan which focuses on what needs to be in place to help a child be calm, stay calm or become calm. Only the very last paragraph looks at the final resort of physical intervention.

[jammydodge]

It doesn't matter how experienced you are - teachers are not qualified to assess a child's state of mind.
Has he/she been seen by a developmental paediatrician?

[helpfulperson]

To go back to your original question - it is a key strength of a reflective practitioner to be able to look back on situation and say 'this bit worked, I could have tried, in the past this has worked, I realised doing XYZ actually made the situation worse etc etc etc. A key part of team teach training is the debriefing. Just because when you look back you think you would have done things differently doesn't mean what you did at the time was in any way 'wrong'. You are having to weight up very quickly the needs of that child in crisis, the other children, the adults around and so it. No response will ever be perfect, it just needs to be the best you could do at the time.

[ASauvignonADay]

There must have been an alternative
Sometimes, there is no alternative. At least not without them or someone else being injured.

[ASauvignonADay]

Taking him outside, for a walk etc helps.
If you can get them out.. the only time (rarely!) that we have used team teach methods (trained) have been when either we have been unable to move them away from a situation.

OP, I've been in your position and spent a fair amount of time reflecting - going over and over in my head trying to workout whether we did the right thing. Ultimately, with the situation we were in and the information and training we had, I think it was. Don't beat yourself up.