Re: teacher shut autistic girl a tiny room
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saaf_laandon_mo
(Post 34749180)
I personally do not think that you need special training to realise that putting a distressed child in a tiny room alone (one which she can't get out from )is only going to make the child more distressed. It's a bit like me putting my4 year old in the cupboard under the stairs or in the garden shed if she is being naughty.
|
Many clinical psychologists would recommend 'time out', which can involve shutting the child in a room, perhaps their bedroom, but definitely not under the stairs, and securing the door so they can't get out. If this technique is used it is for extreme sitations only, where the child has lost control of his/her temper completely, and then you use it for a very limited time. The standard formula is one minute per year of the child's life. The approach has been popularised in recent years by Dr Tania Byron, who has done several series of programmes for BBC Three. 'Supernanny' Jo Frost also recommends it.
The point, however, is that this girl has special educational needs and it cannot be assumed that techniques on 'normal' children will work. Often, they won't. The fact that the teaching assistant shut the girl in the first aid room, held the door shut and kept her there for what she estimates to be 5 minutes, suggests that she was applying a standard 'time out' approach. The judge accepts she acted in good faith because she was trying to use a technique designed to calm down severely agitated children, and was not trying to harm the child or simply vent her own frustration. |
