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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Biting

Received a call from the acting principal of my 3-year-old's school today.  Todd bit a substitute teacher through her jeans and broke the skin because he wasn't getting what he wanted. About 2 weeks ago, the same thing happened where Todd bit his cousin because she was preventing him from doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing.  He never bites myself, my husband or his brother aggressively, or at all, for that matter.

This is an unfortunate aspect of autism.  Sometimes autistic kids bite for a reaction, if they are overwhelmed, on sensory overload, or are unable to communicate another way. Todd is non-verbal.  It's often hard to tell if he understands what's being communicated to him.

When the principal called, he asked my husband "is something going on at home." I know that's a standard question for school administration to ask parents, but it implies the incident must be our fault.  I understand aggressive behavior is inappropriate and must be addressed.  I understand schools need to report significant incidents to parents.
I was called to meet with the IEP team.  It appears we're all on the same page and through behavioral analysis and occupational therapy, hopefully the aggressive behavior can be avoided in the future.

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