Closing A Door

My time as a one-on-one support worker at this particular preschool, with my particular student has come to a close with the school year. I have been reflecting on everything that I learnt and was challenged with in the last two months. I was quite impressed with everything that my young boy has accomplished in such a short period of time. I completed a list of things that I was focussing on throughout my time with him, being pleasantly surprised by how lengthy it was. Due to his diagnosis and background most of the lessons learnt were relationship based; they had to do with treating others around him appropriately, without violence, and how to isolate his own emotions and act accordingly. A lot of this also encompassed establishing respect of teachers and authority figures, listening to their instructions and obeying ‘right away, without delay’. Finding creative ways that would suit him best was a challenge, of which I can now see I gained a lot from. I found each day to be trial and error, and this unpredictability made it difficult to develop consistency. Some days my ideas were responded very well too, and others not. The most effective strategy that I came up with for him we labelled as: “the peace corner”. In the Montessori classroom I closed off a corner for him, this area was for him to run to whenever he would feel overwhelmed, angry, agitated or emotional. Here, he was directed to find a calm body, compose himself, and decide what the best choice would be moving forward (when I use the term ‘calm body’ that is a phrase that I would use daily with him. It was used whenever he was having an outburst, and his body was essentially out of control. Here is where a lot of violence occurred, and he understood that he could not move forward in anything until he demonstrated a calm body. A calm body consisted of his voice being at an appropriate level, using appropriate language, his mouth, arms, and legs are not being used to hurt anybody, but being kept to himself, and he is willing to make the situation right—i.e decipher what he did wrong, and apologize). The corner consisted of some lounging chairs, a table with flowers, a blanket and books. It gave a home-y and welcoming atmosphere which made him feel comfortable there. All resources in this corner were manipulated. The books on the bookshelf were all children's story books about how to treat your peers, or how to act when you are angry. Reading these to him was not only a new way to help him see what is an appropriate way to act (via characters and an appealing story line), but also a soothing activity that helped him compose himself and his mental state. All things on the wall were tools and pictures that he could use to find a calm body. There were step by step charts of gaining a calm body posture, a zone chart where he would point an arrow toward the red, grey or green zone depending on his emotional level, and strategies of how he can feed his energy into positive things that bring calmness. The most effective was the feel chart, this gave him the opportunity to identify his current emotions and describe them to me. We then would decide together what we can do to get him to identify his emotions as calm again. Getting back to a calm state was always the goal. All of these wall charts were hands on, tactile activities. They would have velcro, flaps, or moving pieces that were there to make it interactive and intriguing for him. He loved his peace corner, at first he used it only during tempertantrums, but later he began spending time there for pleasure, understanding that he was to be peaceful there. The initial intention of the peace corner was for future independence. The hope was that this pattern would evolve into an instinct, that he would naturally go there whenever he felt an outburst coming, without prompting. That even when I was no longer his support worker he would have a safe place to go and let out his frustration and then come back to his peers. This strategy diminished the violence toward his friends at the preschool, as he was learning how to feed his anger elsewhere, not toward them. I was encouraged with the success that he gained through the use of his peace corner. Further strategies that I created were less consistent in their success. Here is where my continual strengthening of patience came into play, as well as flexibility with my approaches and understanding that not every day was going to be a good day. I am continually pleased and thankful for this job opportunity that has stretched me, and brought me so much joy. I am thrilled to continue in this field, bringing another wonderful experience, full of new, creative strategies, and lessons learned with me.