I was just reading another one of our bloggers post on “Scream Rooms” being used in some elementary schools. My son George has epilepsy that causes seizures in the right frontal quarter of his brain. The right frontal lobe controls behavior, impulse control and the decision making between right and wrong. George has had anger issues before and in his IEP or Individual Education Plan he had directions for calming and redirecting him. I know that as a parent I would never sign off on my child being put into a room with or without a teacher until I saw and watched how they would handle the situation.
I am totally outraged at the thought these “educators” think that it is ok to traumatize a child by locking them in a room by themselves and just letting them work out their anger. Many children with IEP’s dealing with behavior have autism or some other medical diagnosis that causes the behavior and I know with George when he was having issues he would hit the walls, and he did rock to soothe himself (usually on his two feet just rocking side to side). If I found out that my child was being placed in a room that he could hurt himself in because of his disability it would take someone to hold me back before I pushed the person who put him in there and locked them in the room for a while to see how they liked it. Yes I am that kind of a mom in case you are wondering.
School is supposed to be a safe place for kids. No the teachers should not be hurt by a child but there are ways to safely redirect and calm a child who is upset. Now I keep mentioning that George does not have these issues as much anymore. I have done a great deal of research into these issues and I did not want to add more prescriptions into his daily regimen. I found that Magnesium/B6 and DHA vitamins help. I know you are probably thinking I am nuts but trust me it works. The combination of these two pills work amazingly well and the best part is they are natural elements. We buy them at a local health food store.
The DHA also helps kids keep focus so we use this on both of our epileptic boys. Steve was on an ADD medication Strattera for a while and he started having a reaction to it so we had to take him off of it but when we started these two vitamins the ADD symptoms went away.