Unique Opportunity and Life Update

Yesterday, I had a wonderful, unique opportunity when John McGee of "Gentle Teaching" fame visited our sons' school, and a special visit was made to observe and give input on Jacob's SIB (Self Injurious Behavior) and aggression. I was graciously invited to observe/participate and it was such a great insight building experience.

I'll back up some. Jacob, DS, age 11 was adopted a year and a half ago from Serbia where he spent the majority of his life in Kulina, a particularly horrible mental institution. He has ongoing behavioral challenges that include SIB, and aggression. We have been trying many things to manage this, including medication, psychological interventions, Sensory Integration intervention, bonding techniques, just everything we can come up with. We know his aggression and SIB increases when his stomach is feeling bad, and I have been hounding our GI department for over a year, with minimal success on that front. His negative behavior serves many purposes for him, so each purpose needs to be addressed. Last week was a particularly difficult week with medications not being correct, and he ended up on the psych unit of our local Children's Hospital over the weekend. His SIB right now is biting himself (He usually leaves bruises, sometimes breaks the skin) on the arm/shoulders, and pinching, hard, along his jaw/neck and arms. These frequently break the skin and almost always leave bruises. HIs aggression looks the same, with some added kicks thrown in.
During his hospital stay, his medication was adjusted, more sensory integration was started and he came home.

The assistant principal from the school called me yesterday to tell me that Mr McGee was scheduled to be at the school until noon, and that they wanted to have him meet with Jacob, Matt and Joey. I asked if I could also attend and of course, I was welcomed.  Mr. McGee was a wonderful teacher, and demonstrated a gentle, loving touch to use with Jacob, emphasizing 100's of hugs a day (He kept saying "100 hugs, at least, per day...do these all day long) Now, his hugs include a gentle caress of Jacob's hand while quietly saying "good boy". His technique is very unique, and I would encourage anyone with a child with difficult behavior to explore his website. I think I am going to order some of his DVDs. We know these behaviors took years to come about and they will be years in extinguishing, but his respectful way seems to make sense to me.

The fact that this technique, complete with the personal meeting of Mr. McGee, was brought to us on the very day that we received the additional photos, the video and brief status update of "Derrick" was not a coincidence. In the status update there was a line that indicated that Derrick, too, can be aggressive and self-injurious.  I think I will learn more of these techniques in our waiting time!

Mary