Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy 8 yo , doesn't care about behavior at school

ElizabethN, How did they implement the behavior plan despite the lack of a completed FBA and parental consent ? That seems off to me.

I guess I don't see the problem with doing an FBA as well (and my school situation seems different from yours as well)-- especially, if the kid has been having problems with different schools over the years. Don't get me wrong -- I totally get why, as a parent, you would react this way, with the issue being that the kid is bored/under-challenged. I don't think doing an FBA automatically qualifies the school to suggest medication. That said, I do think that the principal should offer IQ testing first(that was a recommendation that was also there in the psychologist's report), and that you should continue to ask for it. If you were to homeschool, the details available through WISC testing or WJ Achievement testing could be valuable.


The school seems to employ punitive methods for something that is not on the radar (as far as misbehavior is concerned). I would probably get all the details you could. Then, show up at the school, and find out what their logic is.

They pretty much just started doing it. The counselor did email it to me, but she also discussed it with my DD9 and started using it before I had much time to think about it or say yes or no. Again, I don't think it's doing any harm, so I'm not pushing. They are giving DD9 rewards for getting a certain number of "happy faces" for behavior during the day. I don't know how (or whether) they plan to fade the rewards. She's mostly choosing lunch with the counselor and a friend from her short menu of available rewards, and she is totally charming the counselor. I don't think harm is likely to come of it.

Oh no ... this thread has got me thinking (and has gotten me nervous). My son has an anxiety disorder diagnosis. Personally, I adamantly believe that my DS does not truly have anxiety to constitute a disorder.. I believe all he really needs is to have his writing accommodations in place (scribing, etc.) and not be shamed for his writing disability (last year a horrible para shaming him and as well as his disability not being accommodated for led to a lot of acting out, frustration and anxiety that got him the anxiety diagnosis. However, the diagnosis is quite useful so I use it to get things like an IEP to have more power to enforce the writing accommodations and such.

Anyway, so they throw in these vague goals for anxiety in the iep and put DS in social skills group. Ds thinks social skills group is fun so I am okay with it even though I think it's pretty useless and unnecessary. I usually go right along with the vague anxiety goals as I see them as just bullcrap and they don't hurt. For me, the iep is really all about getting his handwriting accommodations for his writing disability

As many of you know we have been struggling with iep writing accommodations. Well, recently in the midst of that struggle, I get notified that they need a "baseline" for the "anxiety goals," which by the way they made a little more specific this time around. I am (was) fine with that but very curious as to how they are going to establish a "baseline" for the anxiety goals. I questioned that and there has been pretty much been radio silence. They don't want to put anything in writing to me anymore b/c of the fighting we are doing over the writing accommodations so they plan on telling me at a meeting we are setting up. .

Is it possible that they will try to do a FBA to get a baseline? I will absolutely not consent to that. I don't want those morons who do not understand the effects of a neuromuscular disability analyzing my son's behavior! Sorry to hijack!

Incidentally, my son has had no disruptive behaviors this year. He has gotten a total of only 2 checks on his daily conduct report. However, the past tww months we all noticed DS has been irritable, much quicker to anger, etc. Then I went back through my communications in my emails and realized they stopped providing his writing accommodations consistently and his para had been made some comments last month 'shaming' him for using a scribe so he was trying not to use her as a scribe anymore. At the last IEp meeting, when we discussed his irritability I maintained it's because they are pushing him too hard to go longer and longer without his scribe. I also maintained once I found out about para'a comments that the para's comments about his disability also contributed to his irritability. They seem to disagree that his behavior (which is simply irritable by the way - not anything ever disruptive or extreme though did seem to be slowly deteriorating progressively) is connected to them withholding his accommodations. This is an area of contention. I am starting to think their plan is to prove through an FBA that the irritability is not connected to whether or not he gets his scribing accommodations.

To the OP I have very little faith in Functional Behavioral Assessments and the Behavioral Analysts that schools use to do such assessments especially when dealing with giftedness and any complicated situations. If you have concerns or your son is having trouble at school, take you son to a Psych/neuropsych YOU choose. Then you decide how much of the info you want to share with the school. I looked it up and you do not have to consent to it and I wouldn't consent. I won't if they try to get me to do it for my son.

And guess what label your child will end up with at the conclusion of the FBA...

From what I understand, they can use the FBA to measure anxiety. Not sure what the school meant by a "baseline".


Wonder how they judge "irritability". This does sound like something that the FBA person may do (much more than the "baseline" for anxiety)

Thanks.
From what I know about FBA, it does sound like your daughter's school is doing behavioral plan in a positive manner. It also sounds like you have a pretty decent relationship with the school.

That's what we ended up telling the school , we're just going to use our own therapist .

Well, fortunately, the IEP that we just worked out has the box for FBA checked "no." So at least I am not consenting to an FBA by signing the IEP. I don't know what they mean by establishing a baseline either. I am somewhat suspicious especially since when I questioned it I was met with a silence. The special ed teacher emailed me saying they made the changes of putting the scribing accommodations back in the iep and were sending it home with DS for me to sign. She added "oh and btw way also added that a baseline for one of the goals must be determined within ten days." I asked "what is a baseline and for what goal is being an added?" She responded "A baseline is the beginning measurement of a behavior. A baseline of behavior is measured before an intervention begins. The baseline measurement, compared to later measurements after an intervention, gives a starting point to measure how effective the intervention is. The baseline will be applied to the anxiety goal." I emailed "well that sounds like a good idea. However, I am curious how you will determine what the baseline is for that behavior? Sorry to be dense... I guess through some sort of behavioral ratings or something?" I received no response to this at all... why can't she tell me how they plan on doing this via email? Obviously, I can't consent to this unless I know what they are planning to do. So I am suspicious... It felt like whatever they are doing/plan on doing they have decided on it without me (ie., we did not discuss this at all in the last iep meeting last week), then they tried to 'sneak' it in (i.e., 'oh btw we are adding this too') and when I say 'please explain how you plan on doing this.' There is silence. Seems odd. And I do not like the feeling that I really can't trust these people.

This is just a thought since i ran into someone's thread talking about Sylvan Learning center .

Would it be a good idea to have DS take their assessment test to see his level ??