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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What's the alternative? I'm not being snarky. Restraining the child? Medicating the child? A lot of these kids are physically harming the teacher or other students. Obviously if they aren't a harm to others they shouldn't be in this room, but plenty of the kids are a harm to others. [/quote]

If you read the article, it gets used a lot where that's not the issue.

And I would say how it is used is, if anything, likely to increase problem behavior in kids. Where's the functional behavioral assessment? Where's looking at the antecedents of behaviors? Where's the evaluating what level of service a particular child needs? Where's the positive behavioral support in holding the threat of the "blue room" over kids' heads?

How well would it work to raise your kids if from the moment they got up they were being reminded that one false step and they would be confided to an empty room?

It is astonishing that schools continue to get away with using these practices in the same manner that would get a residential treatment facility a failing accreditation grade and put into corrective action.

I also got the impression that in some of these cases you have staff that likes to pile on the punishment. Kid goes into seclusion. Somehow that just doesn't feel like enough punishment, so require a written apology/extend the time served/look for a reason to send him back in.

BTW I had a kid with behavioral issues, learned that restaining an confining him just made matters worse, and developed other responses. For a time he was in an RTC, where it turned out they were using seclusion but NOT documenting it as the law required; I brought the state and the accreditation people (JCAHO) down on them. I also found they had failed their previous accreditation in regard to seclusion and restraint. At least in those contexts there are standards which have the potential of an entity losing licensing and money.

I know what it feels like to be a parent and find out this has been happening. [/quote]

I think for most kids that have trouble regulating their emotions, seclusion does not work.  Much like a 2 yr old timeout, the idea is to take a break from the whatever is causing the behavior and give the child a chance to calm down.  However if the child could do this, chances are pretty high that they would have developed this skill by 4 or 5 as other NT children do.

So now the school is left with an aggressive child that cannot calm down and is danger of harming himself and others.  I agree, in many cases in the article the “punishment” did not fit the crime and seems to be being abused.

PP with the child in the RTC— what eventually helped your child learn to self regulate?[/quote]

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