All Mixed Up

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Autism.

Age 7

Special Education Teacher and Assistant

2nd Grade.

Regular Elementary Teacher with dual certification in Reading

21 Classmates.

Integration.

 A classmate with Tourette's Syndrome and possible OCD

 A classmate with a Language Processing Disorder.

Another Teacher Assistant.

A classmate who has yet to be identified but who has the characteristics of ODD(Oppositional Defiant Disorder)....and because he has no "label" or IEP, he gets no aide assigned to him. and he needs one! 

This is the make-up of the 2nd grade classroom that my 2 assigned students are in from 8-2:15 pm every day of the school year.  My 2 assigned students are both 7 years old.  One has autism.  The other is multiply handicapped (slow learner, requires OT,  Speech Therapy and ESL (he is from Lebanon).  I also work with 5 other special needs children (2 are in another 2nd grade class. I know all 4 of these 2nd graders from working with them in Kindergarten;  the other 3 are in 1st grade and I had them last year in Kindergarten).  2 of them are autistic (one with hyper activity disorder)  2 have Down Syndrome, 1 has a form of CP with Mental Retardation.  I love them all.  All of them are integrated into the regular 1st or 2nd grade classroom. And all of them require a shared aide.  All of them spend 1-2 hours per day in the special education classroom where I assist that teacher....I then spend time as their shared aide in their classroom. (the 2 7 year olds.  The other special needs children mentioned above have an aide for every 2 children).  This is a busy group of children!

Now...picture an autistic child who has a difficult time with auditory stimuli.  His classroom tends to get noisy at certain transitions and certain activities throughout the day.  Add to this, a peer with Tourette's (which includes loud outburts of various noises or words) plus the child who appears to be extremely defiant.  This is a lot of activity for an autistic child to deal with.

Now...picture physical education.  This is a class with his 21 other classmates plus the 2 assistants (me and my co-worker...she is mainly working with the Tourette's boy).  The gym gets loud.  And one day a week that class includes another 2nd grade classroom. The one with the little boy, D, who has CP/MR. I work with all 3 on those days....with an intern's help at times.

Last week in phys ed:

We are playing a relay race game.  A (the boy I work with) is on the winning team.  His teammates are cheering him on.  His face is turning red.  His eyes are filling with tears but he has a silly grin on his face. His body language is starting to show me that he is soon going to experience a "melt down"....he will begin screaming, kicking, and possibly trying to slap peers.  I notice this body language and hear him say certain words and I quickly move to his side.

I tell him I want to help him.  He says OK.

I say "A, your eyes have tears in them.  But you are smiling."

A says:  "I'm a loser".

Me:  "No, A! you are on the winning team. Your friends are cheering for you. That means you are doing great.  It means they are happy!".

A (YELLING LOUDLY) "I'm all mixed up"

and it just escalated from there......

Me:  "Let's take a walk back to the classroom."

A and I walk down the hall where he becomes less agitated. We talk about how he is really feeling (embarrassed) I explain to him by writing a story when we get back to his desk.  The story goes like this:

One day, A was in gym.  His team was winning the race.  A was happy but also embarrassed.  He didn't like his friends cheering for him.  A had tears in his eyes but he was smiling.  A was all mixed up!!  His teacher asked him why he was crying but smiling.  He said he was all mixed up!  His teacher told him that winning is a good thing....that sometimes we lose but today he was on the winning team!  His friends liked that he could run fast.  A was all mixed up and didn't know how to feel.  The teacher told A it was ok to smile.

Now....this little boy had a screaming fit!!


And it reminded me of when I've had my screaming fits towards God.  Oh yes...I have had them!


Sometimes my feelings have been "all mixed up" like that of little A's.


I am so glad we can go right to the Father with our feelings....the good, the bad, the happy, the sad, the embarrassed.

We don't have to wait for someone to come and help us write a story to sort out our feelings.  (autistic children have a difficult time with emotion and some autism children have no affect at all!  A is a higher functioning autistic little boy...he would be classified "aspergers" if that were still an option.)

No matter what we are feeling......we can take those feelings to the Lord.

If they are negative emotions like anger, depression, worry, we can release them to Christ and He will bear them for us.

If they are positive emotions, we can laugh and dance for joy with our Savior and Redeemer!

Are your feelings "all mixed up" sometimes?? 

Bring them to Christ.....He'll help you re-write your story.