Successful Strategies
Again, I found out about a previous preschooler who is spending most of his time in the regular classroom. He originally came to us at three years of age, essentially non-verbal, aggressive, without purposeful play or social interactions. After approximately a year and a half, using sensory strategies and developmental stimulation, he was more verbal, a bit more functional in play but still quite aggressive and lacked social interactions. ln consultation with the school psychologist we decided to approach the child differently. He was being encouraged to say he was “mad” and go to his safe place, which he chose, when being aggressive and throwing toys. We stepped back and observed when he seemed to become “mad” and it occurred to us that it had to do with when things went wrong, not as he had planned. So, it became evident he needed to move beyond being “MAD”. We realized that he really was anxious, so we replaced “MAD” with “Fix-it”. Within short order (from January to June) not only did he calm down when we assured him that what he was building could be fixed, but he began to use it and reassure himself that he could fix it. Subsequently, he more quickly developed language, functional play skills and peer relationships.