I wish controlling Jerry was this easy!!
So, the days of treasure box and Slurpees and great behavior in school have officially ended! Every single day last week went from bad to very bad to worst ever! It started Monday when Jerry simply refused to do any work and cried and threw tantrums rolling around on the floor ALL day! Poor Meaghan! Tuesday came with no tantrums, but complete non-compliance. The behavior therapists stayed in the classroom with Meaghan and they tried everything they could think of. They even rewarded the other kids with popsicles one day and ice cream on another, hoping Jeremiah would WANT to work for the same reward. NOTHING!
What Jerry really wanted was individual attention. Normally, his non-compliant behavior and acting out would result in him going to another room with just one other teacher/therapist while he completed his seat work. Little did they know that this was exactly what Jerry wanted...one-on-one time...with anyone, really. This was discovered when Meaghan sent all of Jerry's schoolwork he refused to complete home and I did it with him as "homework". The next day, when Meaghan gave him his work for the day, he looked at her and said, "Nope. Pile it on. I'll take it home and mom will do it with me!" Little stinker!
On Wednesday, the class got to watch Frozen for their free time in the afternoon. Meaghan told Jerry he would not be able to watch the movie with the rest of the class and he said, "So. I can watch it at home. We have it!"
Now it was time to get serious!
We had a conference call between me here at home and the behavior therapist, Meaghan, AND Jerry at school. Jerry got to hear first hand that we were all on the same page. No Frozen at school, no Frozen at home! And the consequences were getting more plentiful as well. Bad day = no soda at dinner, no ipad after school or at school the next day, no going outside, no snack before bedtime, and bed early. Whew! He suffered that fate Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, we dangled his brother Jonathan's 17th birthday party sleepover in front of him, as well as his friend Brandon's birthday party on Saturday....in addition to all of the other consequences for having a bad day!
Also, Meaghan started adding a minute to the timer for each of his outbursts and non-compliance and Jerry would have to stay after however many minutes he earned at the end of the school day. Thursday, I waited 27 minutes for him! Friday, I waited 16. UGH!
Let's just say it was a very lllloooooonnnnngggg weekend for Jerry! He went to bed at 7:10 Friday night, before getting to watch Jonathan open his gifts or have his homemade chocolate chip birthday cookies. Besides his baseball game Saturday and a wedding we went to on Sunday, he did not see the light of day! Saturday, friends of ours ordered pizza for us for dinner, complete with a 2-liter of Pepsi and cinnamon sticks for dessert. It KILLED him! He stayed home for three hours while his brothers, sister and dad went to his friend Brandon's birthday party. And we never caved....on anything!
We weren't sure if what we were doing was going to work or not. He would go from, "I don't really care." to, "That's not fair." to, "It's all my fault." He understood it was his choices that stripped him of his privileges, but he was still so defiant at times and angry about it all. The only thing that seemed to affect him one day last week was when his friend at school got right in front of him and said, "Jerry, you need to stop right now. You are really annoying me and hurting my ears!" Meaghan said he sat down shocked and just cried. He said, "I'm not going to have any friends because of my behavior!" He was a little more subdued the rest of that day, but he'd already lost all of his "tokens" by then anyway.
I dropped Jerry off this morning not real sure of how his day would be. He told us last night that he was not going to do his work. John told him that he'd better not expect anything fun or anything he wanted then either. He said he didn't care. I was not very optimistic for him to say the least!
I got a call from the school at 10 am. I held my breath as I answered. It was Jerry. Meaghan let him call me to tell me that he did his math! I could hear her in the background cheering him on and he was so excited. I told him I was proud of him and to keep up the good work.
When I got there this afternoon to pick him up, Meaghan came cheering and running to the van right behind Jerry. Jerry had his token board in his hand and a huge smile on his face. He earned ALL 20 tokens today!
Needless to say, we got a Slurpee on the way home, came home and played Zingo, the new B-I-N-G-O game he got and had yet to play, he's already planned what soda he'll be drinking for dinner and what snack he'll be having before bed, and he can't wait to take his ipad to school to play during choice time tomorrow.
Small victory.
