Anger management course for ASD children

[Karen A]

Hi Ben's teacher is thinking about asking whether he could be provided with some anger management training at his Annual Review in a few weeks time.Does anyone have experience of this sort of training ? If so who provided it and did it help ?

Ben is 8 he has DCD and Social Communication Difficulties.He is very bright with an excellent vocabulary.However his behaviour can be very challenging-hence the course.Thanks Karen.

[carrieq]

Ed Psch suggested ds be taught visualisation LOL!!! Imagine a beach, waves lapping against the shore type thing!! Didn't take her up on the suggestion

Carrie

[phoebe]

the school my ds is at, and the behaviour support dept seem to advocate BRAIN GYM and we have been shown how to encourage him to do it.

 

Seems like a load of gobbledeegook to me though and maybe he has picked up on that because he is v reluctant to do any of the exercises.

 

He is 8 and a half and has had anger management probs all his life really. We were told, when he was 5,6,7 + that he was too young yet to do any real anger management training as it was aimed at older children. But - a friend who works for Behaviour Support and who has a son who is ADHD, recommended the books 123 magic and Volcano in my tummy. The first is behaviour management and the second is about giving your child the skills to recognise how he is feeling. It is an excellent resource and we use it techniques from it regularly.

 

Finally, we are booked onto HELP2 Anger Managment which is running in Oxford on 8 FEB. Maybe you could still get a space?

 

I will try to pass on any help from there if you are unable to get on.

 

Love and hugs Phoebe

[JsMum]

J has recieved a lot of support over the years for anger management and mostly was a combination of things we did and still do.

 

At home we follow a process for when J is very angry involving 3 tasks,

 

1, release, so punching a punchbag, or pads so a good punch bag, and some punching gloves.

a physical activity, to rid of the energy and the adrenalin that we release when we are angry.

 

at school this could be a run around the playground with a support worker, or punching punch pads that are mobile.

 

2, a calming envoiroment, so quiet and less people around, so J has his room to go to and chill out too and he does some breathing excercises.

 

at school J can go to the medical room or the green room and have time out.

 

3 reflection so we talk about what happened and how we can support and help him next time.

 

this could be a named, trusted teacher that he goes to and has a chat to discuss what upset him.

 

J has three named teachers he can approach or they approach him if he is clearly angry.

 

We studied anger together, looking at books, cd roms, video and DVDs.

 

we reduced triggers throw the day and we have visual timetables so he can predict the day and as its pictures he understands.

 

J did attend a ADHD anger mangement course but I still feel that this needs to be extended into other areas of their development, social, emotional, interaction ect...

 

many triggers for J was also sensory so things he heard, saw, felt so looking at these helped a lot and book that supported me was the book called the out of syncs child.

 

teacher tv has some very good videos to watch about two teachers going into school and discussing anger management so do have a look at the video collection on their site on standards site.

 

we also looked at physical reactions of what anger does and I also attended an adult course in Anger Mangement to understand its effects and help support J more.

 

Google child anger management uk as well and you will find more information.

 

one thing to consider too is many of the techniques have to be individialised to your son, what may work for others may not work for your child, 123 magic did not work for J and caused him major confusion. meltdowns and major tantrums that was uncontrolable.

 

Our programme works with the release, reduce phsical symptoms, and reflection.

 

JsMum

[hev]

steven had 4 weeks of anger management for an hour a week which wasent long enough,made no change at all really,they just seemed to do crossword puzzles,yours will prob be better as i have heard good experiences of it so go for it,my cahms not much good anyway

[Karen A]

Thanks for all of your input.I will certainly try some of the suggestions at home and see if they could help in school.Regards Karen.