Comments on: Scoop Essentials: Behavior, Taming The 800-Pound Gorilla

By: Teresa Daniel

Teresa Daniel — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:38:03 +0000

Wow, I thought I was the only one.

By: Laurie Montijo

Laurie Montijo — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:47:53 +0000

I have also experienced times when each of my son’s both with very different sets of multple disabilities, exhibiting behaviors like kicking, screaming and breaking things at times their disabilities impact them in ways far more significant than they are able to cope with, especially when they were younger. My younger son has had what I call meltdowns due to his extreme feelings of hopelessness from multiple sources that he has not known how to express. Some the best insights into sources have followed his meltdowns as with my help choosing words, he was better able to express the sources of his pain. In addition, he feels very badly about himself after he loses control and he has very poor self-esteem/self-image and beliefs about how bad he is that I spend time helping him improve and point the reduced episodes to illuminate that he can get better. “Poor anger management.?” What anger management skills does an eight-year-old possess with a disabled brother who lives with Autism and several other disorders who cannot stop talking, pacing, interupting or allowing him space and a father who controls behavior with spanking, yelling and other severe punishments and believes that coaching, teaching, positive reinforcement are enabling and keeping him six years old? Black and white statements such as those in the article above are rarely, if ever, entirely accurate.

By: mdm

mdm — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:42:32 +0000

This sounds like an important contribution to the literature on this subject, and I will look forward to reading Deborah Lipsky’s book. I hope that in doing so I will find a significant expansion on her answer to the first question asked above: What is behind behavior? Managing the behavior of an individual is important, but incomplete without also understanding what’s behind it and managing that as well. I have found too often, especially at school, that children sometimes can’t handle certain environments, for varying reasons, and if that underlying problem is not addressed, the behavior will manifest differently, once an initial behavior is extinguished. The child could fall into a depression, which then presents a whole other set of problems and challenges for the child and those working with him/her. I believe that behavior specialists, special educators, social workers, school staff and administrators too often try to manage the moment, and all focus is on the behavior itself, without regard for the underlying causes. I hope Ms. Lipsky has more to say about dealing with what’s behind the behavior in her book.

By: MB

MB — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:59:36 +0000

Sounds like a good book with solid ideas. HOWEVER,
I strongly disagree with this statement:
“There should be no excuse for any disability for behaviors like kicking, screaming and breaking things. Those are inexcusable and not part of anybody’s disability. It’s just poor anger management.”

I hope she and others will investigate some rare syndromes enough to realize that this is incorrect. There are syndromes ( such as Smith-Magenis Syndrome http://www.prisms.org) that do involve meltdowns that can be directed at another person, and that can involve kicking screaming and/or breaking things, but that are definitely a part of the disability. The impulsivity and adrenaline surges that are a part of SMS cause the person to lose control of their actions, and lash out at others. Punishments and rewards are completely ineffective, because the person with SMS doesn’t have the ability to calm himself, no matter how enticing the reward or how threatening the punishment. They need proper management and understanding to learn to control themselves. Their reactions are syndrome-driven…due to a chromosomal deletion.
She states , “In a meltdown the person is no longer able to rationalize anything and they go into an instinctual fight response. There’s nothing you can do to make those behaviors less demonstrative because the person has no control over them. ” In my experience, this is absolutely true of an SMS meltdown.
So please, don’t decide ahead of time what is/isn’t caused by disability.
School and court officials can take statements like that and use them to deny special consideration to a person with a disability who needs help instead of punishment. I’ve seen it happen.

To be fair to the author, the statement I quoted is probably much better explained in her book, and may make allowances for situations like genetic syndromes. I hope so.