Hi everyone

can anyone help, iv just started working in a mainstream primary school working with a girl with spina bifida, at the moment she is just doing part time until shes ready to go full time, i have done weeks of medical training which was great fun and have been waiting for ages for her to start full time, but in a main stream classroom things for her are so diffrent to the school she is used to, what it is can anyone help me i need to know how to stop her from keep showing off in the classroom when no one is looking or taken any intreast in her when she was new everyone wanted to be her friend but now they see her more their not so intreasted as they were before so she keeps trying to be seen and herd and i dont want the class teacher to think im not doing my job properly because she talks above her as well, how can i be suttle as not to up set her to let her know she cannot behave like this in the classroom, its my first time in school as a support assistant so i realy do need some help.

thanks Jane Louise[color=blue][/color][color=blue][/color]

she's bound to seek attention in this new interesting environment and up till now she's got it and this has set of this patern of behaviour.

I would say the best thing to do at the moment is to ignore any attention seeking behaviour but give her or children around her lots of praise for sitting nicely, praise her for doing the right thing and ignore the attention seeking behaviour

as a matter of interest how old is she

make sure she knows the rules of the class. like everybody else she has to follow them and like everybody else she will get the same sanctions as the others.
what year group is she? has she been to other schools part time or is this the first time she has been away from home.

how does her spina bifida affect her, as there are many different degrees of ability.

Hi

thanks for your replys, she is in year four which makes her 9yrs old, she is at a special school and has only walked for a year so has only just realy started to learn her reading is of her level but maths is like year 1, i have to change her cafitor ( sorry carnt spell) to help empty her bladder every day, i have tryed to ignore her behaviour but other children see this and then they try to do the same thing, today she has been realy rude to me and i have told her not to be and to stop being cheeky, i have told the head teacher about this but i told him that i would like to dill with this for now but if it carries on i will ask him, she has a twin brother in the class who has no disabilitys and he also said that she has been very rude, i have also pointed out to her that i am here to help her and she should understand that because i wont have her being rude to me, she can be very sweet so maybe she dose need to settle but i dont want to feel im getting up set over this or cannot handle the situation she has been comming to the school on and off since feb 06 and doing more and more days a week until she goes full time

I guess that your problem is similar to mine then...I work with a downs girl in yr4...backyeared 1 year so aged 10....she is working at a reception/yr 1 level....she has no peers to compete with or judge herself against which means that she is prone to totally giving up on her work, and frankly having tantrums daily....she runs the show cos we just don't have the sanctions available to us to make a difference....this being the down side to inclusion totally!!.....mum has taught her to say 'had enough' which she does far too often....if she were at special school she would be made to...(by restraining) work or take part as a member of a group. She doesn't go to assembly or PE in fact 20 mins of golden time is the limit of her time spent with the class.....ok, ok whinge over......guess where this is going is......come down very firmly, don't let her rule even if it is an allowance to help her settle, she has to work within the same boundaries as her peers or it will be a struggle in yrs 5 and 6 to get her to comply to any tasks!

How would she react if Golden Time were withheld? It is supposed to be earned so if she hasn't completed the work could that be used as a carrot to get compliance. May be a screaming match the first time she is sitting with a 5 minute timer (been there), but it may be a way to try.

no, she would either scream.....which is not only disruptive to class but whole lower juniors....run away to gates and try and climb them or just totally not care and get on with her own thing!!!! We have no sanctions that we can use that don't send her into crisis pattern behaviour and as a mainstream school we are ill equipped to deal with this as it would mean constant restraining. She is bumbling along in mainstream schooling within a junior school in a year 4 class and working at reception level........I can think of better places for her!!!!!

Hi everyone

thanks for all your replys, as im new to this job and have only worked in playgroups and nurserys before i have a 6year old girl with autisum so i know how hard behaviour in some children can be and the attention they want, but how do i know what my bounderies are, how far can i go with out having to feel i need to ask the class teacher if i can do this or can i do that iv done level 2 teaching assistant course and have done behaviour in the class room but working with a child with special education needs and well as pysical disability and behaviour problems its real and not on paper as iv studied, can anyone help me as to what i can do and how far i can go please or who i should speak too

thanks alot for your help and for your time

Each child is different, what works for one may not work for another....keep things simple......if she receives speech and language support, very simple language should be used. Traditional sanctions and rewards as a means of behaviour control may not work so you may have to find some strategies of your own that do work...just means trying a few.....I don't know what level of SEN/physical/behavioural difficulties she has but we have a corner where the pupil I work with can go to chill out and play if she is feeling too overwhelmed within a classroom setting. We work on a token system e.g. 4 pieces of Literacy followed by 10 mins reward, then 4 pieces of numeracy again followed with reward time. This was put in place by outreach workers but does work well. Above anything else come down very firmly, don't let her rule even if it is an allowance to help her settle, she has to work within the same boundaries as her peers or it will be a struggle in yrs 5 and 6 to get her to comply to any tasks!

I bet she gets away with murder at home.Unfortunately a lot of sen's parents let them have their own way all the time.

she wears the pants at home i know that through nurses that work with her we both do sign even though she speaks good english,its hard because her mum does not speak english so if i ask her to tell her mum something i dont know whats she is telling her, shes not going to tell her mum shes been rude anyway thanks for all your feedback and i have taken it all in, i have found the best way this week is that if she is rude to me i just ignor her for twenty mins during guided reading, i keep my eye to her to make sure shes ok, sometimes i catch her looking at me and shel look away quick but this does seem to work because my way she gets no attention

anyway thanks again

The ignoring is fine so long as you make it clear why.


Make sure you sy something like, I do not like what you have done/said etc and am going to think it over. When you are ready to behave in the correct mannor then I will be happy to work with you.


She needs to know that there is a way out of the situation and how to resolve it.


Sounds like early days, smalls steps can create a long journey!