Back to Behavioral Therapy

I just printed out a 24 page intake form that I have to wade through in order to sign Bradley up for Behavioral therapy.  We are hoping for some in school sessions where the therapists come into his school and help him with their work with him.  It’s frustrating really; for the most part, he does well at home with us.  Sometimes he acts up and is crazy, sometimes he just acts out for reasons we really can’t seem to figure out.  Out of nowhere, he’ll just want to pull hair, or scratch, or even smack.  He’ll be frustrated and then he’ll cry and be sorry - it’s just a matter of waiting out the mess before he gets calmed down again.  These events usually happen around times when he is starting up at school again.  He will copy all the negative behaviors that he sees, no matter how small.  And then he’ll take what he learns and make it bigger.  When he isn’t feeling well, he acts out too.  Turns out he tends to act out a lot, and he doesn’t feel great a lot of the time.  It sucks.

So far at school, he has tried to bite staff, and then he actually did bite one of them.  To be fair, they were training a new person and he was overwhelmed, and the actual bite - she came up behind him to vent him, he was not a fan and she felt she had startled him.  Either way, we spent two hours, every Thursday for a year learning behavior therapies to prevent the biting, the scratching, and the head hitting, so when it starts up again, I start looking to put him right back to work on his behavior issues. It makes my heart hurt as I realize that he has to start all over again.

So I have filled out most of the paperwork and once I finish it and turn it in, then Bradley will be evaluated and then we’ll be heading to a new series of Behavioral therapy at their center.  We’ll go about twenty minutes away from home for over ten hours a week, potentially as many as twenty...all to figure out how to unlock the part of Bradley’s behavior vault that sets him off in negative ways so that we can turn it around to positives.  And then, I can only hope that the behaviorist will also come to his school for sessions as well.  So that we can all get on the same page with his behaviors and make sure that we are not confusing the issues or confusing the routines for him.  They want to come to the house, but I said No.  Not right now.   Bradley will gain behaviors when they come into the home, and then we have to eradicate those AND the target problem areas, all while trying to keep him from choosing his favorite method of avoidance - closing his eyes and going to sleep, nearly every time.  I don’t blame him, I don’t like pushy people either.

I wish that what was best for him was not so completely going to take over my life.  But it is what it is I guess, what is best for him has to come first as the priority.  I can only hope that by loading up now, we’ll see better behavior from him at school, at home and out in the world.  That maybe, we can make him want to be more independent as he continues to learn what he is capable of doing on his own.  If there is the slightest potential that he may choose to be potty trained when it’s all said and down, then I am so definitely in, I can’t even explain the depth!  Would be worth a chunk of my life in the long run though.

First comes the ideas of compliance, control of his emotions, and following directions.  I don’t expect him to move out on his own when he’s an adult, I don’t truly expect he’ll get to go into a roommate situation with a caregiver sharing his home.   But I can hope that he will enjoy his life, being a part of his family, his community, and having friends of his own that he enjoys hanging out with.  I want him to be happy, healthy and able to navigate his life.  So off to Behavioral therapy we are preparing to go; and as always, time will tell.

Off to tackle a few more of the pages in that stupid intake book and then and call it a night.  Don’t tell anyone, but Bradley has actually slept through the night two nights in a row.  Truly the oddest feeling ever, to sleep through the night two nights in a row.  He does three in a row and I might throw a party.

Have a wonderful night folks.  Happy 31 For 21 Blog Challenge, it’s the 15th...goodness gracious, we’re almost halfway through Down syndrome Awareness month, what a wonderful month it has been!