Hi,
My dear nephew who is 7 and in first grade is having trouble with emotional outbursts in school. Typically he sees somebody 'cheating' in a game in gym (which apparently they sometimes are in a not-so-big way and nobody else cares) or thinks someone is making fun of him at lunch (which sometimes they are, but sometimes are just being rowdy) and he gets upset and can't handle his emotions and sometimes ends up hitting. Recently he was suspended for hitting his teacher when she tried to intervene. My dear sister and her husband have tried a lot of things and are very frustrated. Nephew has been evaluated and found to be HG+ but did not meet criteria for any disorder (particularly ADD/ADHD). The teacher has been helpful with making some changes to help nephew stay out of trouble but it's not working even though she does seem to 'get' him and is trying to help (I think things like 'priority seating,' standing next to him when the kids line up, etc.). They're going to try social skills group work as well as continuing individual therapy but the school is pressuring them to get a diagnosis and an IEP which they are resisting because they're afraid it will mean they will have to put him on drugs, which they are completely against. It's unclear what the school would even want to put in an IEP and my sister is afraid they will want to put him in some kind of class for 'bad' kids. She thinks he'll outgrow these outbursts in a year or two as he matures socially but in the meantime of course this can't continue and they don't know what else to do. She might end up pulling him out to homeschool, which they have done before, but think it's better for him to learn social skills at school...if they can get him to stop acting out. Any BTDT advice on what else might help? Maybe neurofeedback? It seems like they're trying the things that would help, just that it's not helping (fast) enough. And they're worried that he might get expelled and that might go on his 'permanent' record and keep him out of other schools, public or private, and maybe even have to be reported when he applies college. I can't imagine it would affect college applications (unless he continued this behavior through high school), but don't know for sure. He's in a public school in Georgia but they would rather homeschool than get involved in any kind of legal stuff, plus of course they agree this kind of behavior is unacceptable. So very frustrating for everyone.
