Lost at School (12 page)

Authors: Ross W. Greene

BOOK: Lost at School

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“Interesting,” said Mrs. Woods. “Betty Galvin and the new school psychologist got into it a little.”

“Really! Over what?”

“Well, first of all, the psychologist, Dr. Bridgman—I don’t know if you’ve met him yet—was late to the meeting,” said Mrs. Woods.

“Whoo boy!” said Mrs. Franco, fully appreciating the seriousness of this offense. “He’ll learn.”

“Didn’t seem to faze him,” said Mrs. Woods. “But he gave us his theory about why Joey blew up, and I don’t think Betty was buying it at all.”

“What’s his theory?” said Mrs. Franco.

“Well, I don’t know that I could do justice to what he was saying, but it made sense to me at the time,” said Mrs. Woods. “He’s coming by this afternoon after school to talk about Joey. He’d like you to sit in, since you have Joey for some classes, too. Can you do it?”

“Sure,” said Mrs. Franco. “I could use a new theory.”

Dr. Bridgman arrived fifteen minutes late for his meeting with Mrs. Woods and Mrs. Franco, who were seated at a table in Mrs. Woods’ classroom. “Sorry I’m late,” he puffed. “This still a good time?”

The two teachers looked up from their conversation. “Um, sure,” said Mrs. Woods.

Mrs. Franco stuck out her hand. “I’m Denise Franco. You must be Dr. Bridgman.”

“Carl’s fine,” said Dr. Bridgman.

“OK, Carl, I understand you have some new theories about our friend Joey.”

“I didn’t think I could do justice to what you said in the meeting,” Mrs. Woods said.

Dr. Bridgman pulled some papers out of his briefcase. “Oh, well, I’m not sure the theories are so new. But the basic idea is that challenging kids haven’t developed a lot of the skills they need to solve problems, handle their emotions, shift gears, interact with other kids, those sorts of things.”

“What did our principal think of your theory?” Mrs. Franco prodded.

“I’m not sure,” said Dr. Bridgman. “I guess I’m accustomed to this being a little new for people.”

“It’s certainly new for me,” said Mrs. Woods. “But I’m happy to be made a believer if you can help us out with Joey. And after that we’ve got a bunch of other kids you can work on.”

“Well, our first task is to get a good handle on the thinking skills that Joey seems to be lacking,” said Dr. Bridgman. “We also want to get a better
idea of the circumstances or problems that cause him the most trouble.”

“That’s easy,” said Mrs. Franco. “Any time things don’t go the way he thought they would.”

Dr. Bridgman handed both teachers a copy of the ALSUP. “Can you be a little more specific?”

“Let me think,” said Mrs. Woods. “He doesn’t like schedule changes. He doesn’t like when his bus is late.” She looked at Mrs. Franco. “Can you think of any others?”

“He doesn’t like when he has a new math partner,” said Mrs. Franco. “And sometimes he gets very confused about what to do on assignments that other kids don’t have any trouble understanding. Does that help?”

“A lot,” said Dr. Bridgman, thinking about some of the lagging skills that might explain these behaviors. “Like I said in the meeting, if we know the problems that cause Joey the most trouble, we can start working on those problems so they don’t cause him so much trouble anymore.”

“You’re saying I should have seen it coming,” said Mrs. Woods.

Mrs. Franco patted Mrs. Woods on the hand. “You have to be careful what you say to my friend here,” Mrs. Franco cautioned Dr. Bridgman. “She’s very hard on herself.”

“Well, with all those kids in the class, it’s not so easy to always see things coming,” said Dr. Bridgman. “But I am saying that Joey’s difficulties are pretty predictable if we’re paying attention to the information he’s giving us.”

“So what’s this?” asked Mrs. Franco, examining her copy of the ALSUP.

“That’s a list of the skills challenging kids frequently lack,” said Dr. Bridgman. “I’m betting some of the items on that list explain why Joey’s been having so much trouble for so long.”

Mrs. Franco scanned the list. “So we’re supposed to figure out which ones apply to Joey?”

“Exactly. And then we’ll decide which ones are the most important.”

“So I’m a little lost,” said Mrs. Franco. “Let’s say we know something’s giving Joey trouble. How are we supposed to prepare for it? I mean, I already make sure he has the same math partner every day so he doesn’t get all agitated. But what about everything else?”

“I hope you won’t think I’m being evasive,” said Dr. Bridgman, “but first we really need to figure out the full range of skills Joey’s lacking and the problems that cause him the most trouble.”

“Oops, sorry,” said Mrs. Franco. “Keep going.”

“So which items seem to apply to our friend Joey?”

Mrs. Franco recited the first item. “Difficulty handling transitions, shifting from one mind-set or task to another …”

“That’s him,” Mrs. Woods confirmed. “Ooh, here’s a big one: difficulty managing emotional response to frustration so as to think rationally.”

“Yep,” said Dr. Bridgman, checking off the items on the ALSUP. “Others?”

Mrs. Woods was carefully studying the ALSUP. “Here are three that describe him to a tee. Difficulty deviating from rules, routine, original plan; difficulty handling unpredictability, ambiguity, uncertainty, novelty; and difficulty shifting from original idea or solution. Then there’s difficulty adapting to changes in plan or new rules … that’s him, oh, and this one … difficulty taking into account situational factors that would suggest the need to adjust a plan of action.”

Mrs. Franco added her own choices. “I’m wondering about these two: difficulty expressing concerns, needs, or thoughts in words, and difficulty understanding what was said …” She looked at Mrs. Woods. “Don’t you think those apply, too?”

Mrs. Woods nodded. “I do.”

Dr. Bridgman seemed pleased. “This is very helpful. Any others?”

The two teachers finished scanning the list and looked at each other. “I’d say that about covers it,” said Mrs. Franco.

“Some of this seems so obvious,” said Mrs. Woods. “How could I have missed it?”

“Join the club, honey,” said Mrs. Franco. “But at least we’re figuring it out now.”

“I don’t think it’s so obvious,” said Dr. Bridgman. “I used to miss this stuff on these kids, too, until I knew what to start looking for. By the way, I can add one that I heard when I met with Joey and his mom. Inflexible, inaccurate interpretations/cognitive distortions or biases.”

Mrs. Franco looked puzzled. “Explain.”

“He thinks teachers hate him, and like getting him into trouble, and like embarrassing him,” said Dr. Bridgman.

“How do you know that?” asked Mrs. Franco.

“He told me,” said Dr. Bridgman.

Mrs. Woods looked hurt. “I can’t believe he thinks those things.”

Dr. Bridgman tried to be reassuring. “Oh, those interpretations may not have anything to do with your interactions with him. My bet is that those ways of thinking have built up over the years. They’re the best Joey can do to explain why he gets into trouble so much.”

“But it’s so terrible that he thinks those things about me,” said Mrs. Woods.

“Yes, we’ll have to convince him that those things aren’t true,” said Dr. Bridgman.

“How do we do that?” asked Mrs. Woods.

Dr. Bridgman looked at his watch. “I think that’s probably another meeting. We have a few more things to accomplish in this meeting, and I want to be sensitive to the time.”

“Oh, don’t worry about the time,” said Mrs. Franco. “It’s having my time wasted that bothers me.”

“Well, we now have a sense of the skills Joey may be lacking,” said Dr. Bridgman. “I’d like to hear a little about the situations that cause him the greatest difficulty … the problems that trigger his worst moments.”

“He just doesn’t seem to understand what to do on assignments sometimes,” said Mrs. Woods. “I mean, that seems to be what set him off a week ago. The entire class is working on a social studies assignment, and Joey’s sitting there doing nothing. So I go over and ask him why he’s not working, and he says he doesn’t understand the assignment. How can he not understand the assignment?”

“We’ll have to figure that out,” said Dr. Bridgman.

Mrs. Franco held up her ALSUP. “I don’t see that on here.”

“Well, that’s a trigger, so it’s something you write in at the bottom where it says Unsolved Problems.”

“Ah, yes, got it.”

“And I guess being embarrassed is a trigger,” said Mrs. Woods. “That seems to have been a factor, too.”

“Yes, indeed,” said Dr. Bridgman.

The teachers considered the question. “I’m going to have to think about triggers a little more,” said Mrs. Woods. “I’m not coming up with anything else at the moment.”

“Me, either,” said Mrs. Franco.

“Well, you mentioned some other unsolved problems already—the bus being late, schedule changes,” said Dr. Bridgman. “Let’s go with what
we’ve got. We have one more task. We need to decide what we want to start working on first.”

“We have to pick?” asked Mrs. Franco.

“They all seem so important,” said Mrs. Woods.

“Yes, it certainly sounds that way,” said Dr. Bridgman. “But we can’t work on everything at once. We’d get overwhelmed and so would Joey. So we need to prioritize to keep things manageable.”

“Um, I know this is a bit off topic, Carl,” said Mrs. Franco, glancing over at Mrs. Woods, “but how much do you think Joey’s mom has to do with his difficulties?”

Dr. Bridgman looked a bit puzzled. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

Mrs. Franco lowered her voice. “There are some people in this school who think Joey’s difficulties have to do with his parents being divorced and his mother being a bit wacko.”

“Interesting,” said Dr. Bridgman. “His mother didn’t strike me as being especially wacko. But to tell you the truth, I don’t think Joey is lacking skills or getting confused on assignments or reacting badly to being embarrassed because his mother’s wacko or his parents are divorced.”

Mrs. Franco seemed satisfied. “So what are we working on?”

“I … I don’t know that I can pick,” said Mrs. Woods.

“OK,” said Dr. Bridgman. “Let’s make it easy. When people are new at this, the easiest place to start is with triggers. So let’s start with two of the ones that we have: maybe being confused on some assignments and being embarrassed in front of his classmates. We could try to resolve those first.”

“Yes, but how?” asked Mrs. Franco.

“Plan B,” said Dr. Bridgman.

The teachers looked at each other.

Dr. Bridgman elaborated. “Collaborative Problem Solving—Plan B—will help us get a better idea of what’s getting in the way for Joey on those two problems and help us come up with solutions so they can be resolved.”

“You want us to come up with solutions?” asked Mrs. Woods.

“No, that’s not Plan B,” said Dr. Bridgman. “Joey needs to be part of the solution.”

“Joey’s going to help us come up with solutions?” asked Mrs. Woods.

“Exactly,” said Dr. Bridgman.

“What makes you think he’ll talk to us?” asked Mrs. Franco.

“Oh, once Joey recognizes that we’re trying to understand what’s going on with him and that we’re trying to involve him in the solution, I bet he’ll talk,” said Dr. Bridgman.

“Does it concern you at all that we’ve never done this Plan B?” asked Mrs. Woods.

“Doesn’t concern me at all,” said Dr. Bridgman. “Most folks have never done Plan B.”

The two teachers looked at each other again. Mrs. Woods turned to Dr. Bridgman. “I suppose I should do Plan B with Joey first. It is my classroom he ran out of.”