I need some tips to keep a preschooler with PDD to stop running away from teachers between transitions.?

Question

I work as a SEIT teacher in a general ed. day care setting. This student will escape by running from teachers in the classroom to avoid transitions like going to the bathroom, washing hands or going to the park. I tried visual supports such as a personal schedule. I was hoping if I could get additional ideas. By the way their are no related service professionals on site to provide some help.

Answer 1

Is the personal schedule in pictures? When it is time to go to the bathroom, show a card with a picture of a toliet. Then tell or read a social story to the child. It could say something like this: Plaly time is over.
It is time to go to the bathroom.
I will walk down the hall with my teacher.
I will stay with my teacher.
I will not run away.

Then when he's done with the toliet, show a picture of a sink.
Then say, It is time to wash hands.

Then show a picture of the classroom. Say Bathroom time is over. Now we go back to the room.
Then say the same thing as above for walking down the hall.

Hopefully you have someone working one on one with this child. Someone needs to be walking directly with this child at all times.

When you do something different, outside of the normal schedule. Make sure he knows he is doing something different.
Then tell him or read to him a social story about walking to the park.

You could make his picture schedule with a ring, and you could flip the pictures over for each transition. or with a vanilla envelope
Have velcro stripes on it and the pictures could be 2" squares and you could move them around. Have a large picture schedule on the bulletin board. We use Boardmaker for the pictures.

I hope some of this makes since and will help.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, there may be too many transitions during the day for this child. Often some kind of early warning followed by periodic reminders of transition helps. This would be things like saying "OK, ten minutes until we go to the park," followed by "five minutes," "2 minutes," "1 minute." I'm sure you already do something like this. It is important that you get an active acknowledgement from the student when you give a directive or information. For instance, insist that statements such as "ten minutes until nap time" are followed by the student nodding or saying "OK". Also, finding ways to break the routine down into smaller steps, such as first waiting by the door to use the toilet, then going once he is there first. Basically, you want to give him (?--tends 8/1) a chance to pause and do nothing for a moment between tasks. Standing by the door, waiting by a gate, or sitting quietly in a chair before moving on to the next thing are all good ways to help him "shift sets". As for getting the student more professional attention, make sure the parents are receiving all the services they are entitled to, which includes lots of professional attention. If not, you can make some referrals. Check if there is a "Rainbow" directory if you need to make a referral. Hope this helps, good luck!

Answer 3

There are a four additional items to try to help the transition go smoother for him. They are pretty simple to implement.

Can a staff be assigned just before each transition is announced to supervise him? I know each state has a ratio of the amount of staff for an age group, and this could be impossible.

Second, break down the task into its simplest parts. For example, please line up at the door; Katie please open the door; walk down the hallway 10 steps; turn right; walk through the door; enter the toilet stall; use the toilet; walk to the sink; rinse your hands with water; add soap; lather your hands; rinse your hands; get a paper towel; dry off your hands; throw away the paper towel.

Third, sensory breaks can help at times too if the classroom tends to be a bit noisey. It could be a comfortable spot in the classroom with a bean bag chair with some noise lessening headphones.

Finally, odds are his parents have the same problem at home at times. Have you tried having a chat with them on how they handle the problem and hopefully brainstorm to find possible solutions that have worked for them. The best idea is to approach them in a non threatening manner and explain you want to help him the most.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Ouch..that is a tough one. The most effective thing would be to have an extra set of hands and eyes around during those times. Since you don't have service professionals on site, I would consider asking one of the on site administrators to help during transitions or see if you can co-ordinate these times to happen at the same time as another teacher's class and work both groups together. This would work well for the larger issues...bathroom time, playground, etc. but may not help with the in-class issues. However, it is perfectly clear that for the child's safety and for the school's own safety from liability issues, this child can not be allowed to attempt these transistion alone.

Anyone who has a child with developmental issues will agree that transtions are the toughest thing to deal with, especially in class and especially when the child just begins school. The idea of a personal schedule is a good one. It must be all visual (pictures only for now) and you must have the child acknolwedge it before and after each transition. This can be done by having two spots for each picture. Before the transtion occurs, give the child a heads up. Don't use anything like "In five minutes it will be time for the bathroom". Most younger kids have poor time concepts and developmental issues compound this. Instead, use statements like "After story time, we will all wash our hands for snack." Say this when you sit down to story, have the student point to it on his schedule, say it again after story and then, once the child has done the task, have him remove the picture of it to a colum marked "Done". Do this for every transition...opening circle to center time, center time to snack time, snack time to story, etc. By helping him to understand the schedule, he is more likely to do what needs to be done as it won't seem to be coming out of nowhere.

ANother useful tool is the kitchen timer or a small bell. Set the timer at the start of each activity, or ring the bell. When you do, again explain what you are about to do and what will happen when the bell rings again. "I'm ringing the bell. It;s time to start snack. When I ring the bell again, it will be time to clean up."

All of this probably seems labor intensive and initially it can be. But after a few weeks, it will become second nature. The added bonus is that your other students will be able to sue the cues as well, and class transtioning should go much smoother as a whole.

My final suggestion would be something to consider discussing at your next parent teacher conference. If this child is over the age of 2, he is eligable to be tested and recieve services through the public schools. This can include things such as special pre-school program (with transportation to and from childcare sites paid for by the schools), supplemental therapies, help for caregivers in designing a program to work with the child and classes and support groups for the parents as well. The child is entitled to these services if he is found to have a qualifying disability and I always encourage all parents to pursue the options open to them.

Answer 5

Kids with PDD and autism need structure and short firm direction. They have difficulty processing change and stress on unpredicability which is probably why he is running away. I would try to get a routine down for the transitions from one area to another so that you are following the same sort of method of transition each time. Also I would keep your instructions to him short and simple so that he has an easier time processing them. One of the issues with PDD and autism is the lack of social interaction between them and other people, so if you are giving him long explanations of what is going to happen next; he will probably tune you out. Keeping things calm and quiet can also help as kids with PDD and autism tend to experience all their senses on an equal par, so sounds, sights, smells etc can be overwhelming if they are all coming at them full tilt at the same time. I would contact your local Children's Hospital or school district for more information on PDD which might also be helpful.

Answer 6

Early intervention staff from the county or district should be helping the parents -- would the day care director be open to having them come in to observe and give you some ideas?

I have been a teacher in this situation, here are some things I tried. In addition to a visual schedule, the child was verbally and physicaly prompted with sign language consistantly 5 minutes before any transition - with patience on our part he began to understand the prompt of "five minutes" (said along with physically demonstrating counting to five on one hand) followed by the 1-2 word title of the next scheduled event along with presentation of the sign language for that event (simple motions not nec. ASL).

It will take patience, consistency and effort on your part but try to remember that this child is just trying to exercise some control over what he percieves as chaos and confusion. With your help he can begin to make sense of the world and you will find things he likes and use these to motivate him to keep developing.

I still see some of my former students and I'm so amazed at how far they can come with proper support and creative patience from teachers. God bless you!

Answer 7

I had the same problem with one of my dogs. He would jump my 5 foot fence and not even think twice about it. He is neutered by the way so that certain it didn't cure him. I installed an invisible fence on the fence that the dog was jumping over. It has worked very well. They are easy to install. Follow the instructions regarding training the dog to the fence to the letter. I know a lot of people don't like them but I feel that it has saved my dog from being hit by cars, shot by mad land owners, and being picked up by animal control. This is the best money that I have spent to keep my escape artist in the yard. I also take this dog out for walks and he gets a lot of training in obedience, agility, and hunting so he gets to do a lot besides sit in the backyard. Take your dog to dog training class so you can teach him what the word come means. Come needs to be a very positive word. It should mean treats and fun not punishment. Many dogs are ruined to the word come because the owner punishes the dog for coming to the word "Come".

Answer 8

Mm, I have a cousin with a similar problem. Have you tried to punish them with a time out or taking away a privilege, or something along those lines? I know it's hard to get through to a kid with PDD and etc, but sometimes anchoring a bad behavior with a bad consequence helps. I don't know how this will work with a preschooler, but I hope this helps you a little.

Answer 9

Lessen and prepare for transitions as much as possible. Is there some sort of object (toy, something shiny, interesting) that he could hold or have as long as he stays with the group? Something to attract his attention. It's probably all the waiting that he has to do, or the close proximity to other children that he's trying to avoid not the actual task itself.

Answer 10

ask his mom what she would prefer you do with him in this situation