teacher shut autistic girl a tiny room

[Russ]

Originally Posted by nomadking

From The National Autistic Society website.

Other than that, no guidance for what the teaching assistant(or anybody else) should do in that situation.

Well neither does it say to hold a gun to the child's head but you know what? I think common sense tells us that wouldn't work.

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Russ B

Well neither does it say to hold a gun to the child's head but you know what? I think common sense tells us that wouldn't work.

It doesn't say that you shouldn't put them in a room either. But it does suggest time out and a quiet room, both of which happened.

It also indicates that even those with training/experience can have problems knowing what to do.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by nomadking

But it does suggest time out and a quiet room, both of which happened.

Alone? In a small room which to the child would seem like was locked?

[Osem]

Originally Posted by nomadking

From The National Autistic Society website.

Other than that, no guidance for what the teaching assistant(or anybody else) should do in that situation.

The child was distressed beforehand, any action taken was in order to try and calm the child down(ie time out, quiet room).

If there is no 100% correct answer, why is the teaching assistant supposed to have come up with one herself.

What action may be appropriate for any given autistic child is not a matter for the NAS website but for the various 'professionals' involved in the specific case who are responsible for the child's wellbeing and whose job it is to find out what he/she needs and responds to.

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Russ B

Alone? In a small room which to the child would seem like was locked?

So she should been allowed to run around the school or even outside? It wasn't cupboard size. Her bedroom might be smaller than that room.

Originally Posted by Saaf_laandon_mo

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.

[LondonRoad]

Originally Posted by nomadking

So she should been allowed to run around the school or even outside? It wasn't cupboard size. Her bedroom might be smaller than that room.

Her bedroom might be palacial.

Her bedroom would be more comforting and consoling than a typical sparsely furnished medical room.

Originally Posted by nomadking

It doesn't say that you shouldn't put them in a room either. But it does suggest time out and a quiet room, both of which happened.

It also indicates that even those with training/experience can have problems knowing what to do.

As I've just described above, time out in a quiet room can be effective, but for 'normal' children. Autistic children's brains are wired differently; they see the world differently and they interpret events differently. while the teaching assistant has apparently had years of experience with this girl, she is sorely lacking in training in what to do. Something the judge has roundly criticised the school for.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by nomadking

So she should been allowed to run around the school or even outside? It wasn't cupboard size. Her bedroom might be smaller than that room.

It's not the size of the room which matters it's the fact that she was shut in it alone whilst in a distressed state. Not exactly a glowing example of a caring educational establishment that!... If it's true that the woman in question had years of experience with the child I find it even harder to understand and accept why she did what she did.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by nomadking

So she should been allowed to run around the school or even outside? It wasn't cupboard size. Her bedroom might be smaller than that room.

Well common sense (currently some peoples' Holy Grail in this thread) says I can't say what would have worked as, like the teaching assistant I have no experience on autistic children. But as a parent (perhaps my advantage over you here?) I do know what scares children.

The room she was in was 16 by 7 feet, had no windows and was sparsely decorated. I suspect her own bedroom (which I'm sure she'd have been used to having spent lots of time in it) would look different.

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Osem

What action may be appropriate for any given autistic child is not a matter for the NAS website but for the various 'professionals' involved in the specific case who are responsible for the child's wellbeing and whose job it is to find out what he/she needs and responds to.

The NAS website also says that there is no correct solution for any given child and as the cause of the child's upset was not obvious how could anyone(even her own parents) be sure what to do in that situation.

Behaviours and needs of pupils with ASD vary from one child to another, as with any child. A strategy that has worked with one child in a particular situation may not work with another child or, for that matter, even with the same child in a different situation!

Originally Posted by nomadking

So provide the links that I have been indeed searching for, but without any luck so far.

I don't think you've been trying very hard.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...c+tantrum&meta=

Her mother is a supply teacher, so should she have to undergo a week's training for each of the many potential situations prior to teaching in a particular school?

What's her mother's career got to do with it? The girl's class teacher, and her teaching assistant, are not supply teachers. They deal with the same stuff every day and so should be appropriately trained.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by nomadking

The NAS website also says that there is no correct solution for any given child and as the cause of the child's upset was not obvious how could anyone(even her own parents) be sure what to do in that situation.

I've already told you that!! That's where the experience with the child and caring comes into the equation. What sort of caring response is shutting a distressed child in a room?

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Russ B

Well common sense (currently some peoples' Holy Grail in this thread) says I can't say what would have worked as, like the teaching assistant I have no experience on autistic children. But as a parent (perhaps my advantage over you here?) I do know what scares children.

The room she was in was 16 by 7 feet, had no windows and was sparsely decorated. I suspect her own bedroom (which I'm sure she'd have been used to having spent lots of time in it) would look different.

But had a window of sorts(ie a hatch) looking on to the corridor.

put her in the medical room, which was 16ft by 7ft and windowless apart from a small hatch looking on to the corridor.

The NAS website says

It is important to give the child a quiet, distraction-free learning area. Too many pictures, bright colours and noise could be difficult for some children to cope with.

ie sparsely decorated

[Saaf_laandon_mo]

A room without windows, long and narrow? Seems like a prison cell to me.