Behavior Therapy

Over the last couple of weeks Micah and I have been subjected to a behavior therapy assessment that turned out to be a complete waste of time.

The therapist who came out said that my son was too well behaved for their one-on-one program, and though she wasn't sure I needed it, offered to recommend to the regional center (who is paying for this program) their parent training class. She actually asked me at one point why I was asking for this service.

Maybe I should have left Micah off his meds for a couple of days instead of just the mornings of the assessment sessions. I just couldn't deal with him beating on his sisters and me while he is out of school. The poor kid would spend his life in time-out. It just seems mean to me.


I guess I'm just beating the wrong bush. Micah's behavior problems are not really prevalent at home. I did everything I could to provoke him at home, and it worked, all the way up until the therapist showed up. Micah turned to smiles and laughter. We tried making him lose at board games (something that usually drives him nuts). I tried letting him play Wii for a couple of minutes and then taking it away as the therapist came. He transitioned quite well.

I'm convinced that he knew what was going on and was trying to thwart me.

The problem is that the assessment will be sent to the regional center who will no longer believe that my son is in need of...anything.

Not that I would try to get a service that my son doesn't need. Right after the therapist left Micah would go into a full blown tantrum throwing chairs and hitting anyone who came near him, screaming the entire time.

Yeah, it wasn't pretty. It happened twice.

Normally he is quite good at home. His behaviors tend to come out at school. I did do a whole lot of provoking, though. His timing was perfect. He accomplished what he wanted. Nothing in his world had to change. The fact that he did it without meds tells me that he has the ability to control himself without them, or at least with less in his system. He just doesn't want things to change.

That just makes me want to change things up a bit.

I don't know what I'm going to add to my expectations yet, but it's coming. He's just to comfortable where he is at. Not that I want my son to be uncomfortable, but he isn't functioning "normally" yet, so being stagnant is not acceptable.

Well, when school begins again on August 4th he will be at a new school with a new teacher (the one he had before was the teacher he had since kindergarten). Church is about to change around the same time. I don't think I'm going to change anything yet, just in case there is trouble adjusting there. Still, once that becomes the new routine, I'll be looking for something to change at home.