Education and Early Childhood Learning

Shared Goal #1: Create predictable and consistent environments with few changes to help the student develop a sense of trust (learning need) and safety (student’s personal need)

Tim has been moved around a great deal and his father has threatened to take him from school. Tim has seen and possibly experienced extreme violence from a trusted adult.

Tim is ADHD

• Child and Family Services will provide supports so the student can remain in the home in the long run.  These include respite twice a week and support for summer camps
• Foster parents will promise only those things that they will follow through with
• Child and Family Services will work carefully with parents to insure that planned meetings occur as planned and will meet with Tim when parents do not follow through with commitments.

• Tim will be placed in a program that has a consistent teacher throughout most of the day
• Tim will be taken aside and forewarned whenever changes are to be made to staff or program
• When activities are to be changed dramatically, Tim will work with a small group or one-to-one using a routine that matches the normal one for the day

Shared Goal #2: Create opportunities for Tim to have low stress times (personal need) when he is most vulnerable to emotional stress

• Foster parents will maintain basic routines but will fill them with less stressful, shorter tasks (i.e. will cook meal with few dishes and may volunteer to clean dishes with the Tim)
• Foster father or mother will find some one-to-one time to share with Tim and be available if he appears to need someone around
• Social worker will schedule more regular meetings with Tim more in advance of these times and may meet with him at school-taking him from school on some occasions
• When Tim is sent home, the foster parents will take the long way home, he will be given the opportunity to go to his room or to help around the house will be used to allow him to reconnect and to re-establish his sense of worth
• When the stress is caused by unanswered questions (i.e. about parent’s plans or actions), the social worker will be informed and will arrange to meet Tim. (This will not be immediate but will be set up for the near future)

• School will develop low stress, high success "shadow" schedule that follows the basic school routine but uses low stress, high success activities – the teacher will decide when greeting Tim in the morning whether the shadow schedule should be implemented immediately (Note: some of this will need to occur outside the classroom since Tim easily gets into conflict with other students during stressful times)
• The shadow schedule will allow for some limited choices
• Tim will have some opportunities to help people (particularly the principal) – Shame is usually an issue during these vulnerable times and helping seems to reduce this dynamic
• On days when Tim is too upset to work with adults, he will be given the opportunity to work alone in a room just off the office on preplanned work
• If he is so upset that he can not work in any setting, the principal will contact the foster parents to take him home

• Tim likes to work with an uncle in his workshop – during these times, Tim may miss school so he can spend time with his uncle, it will be because "his uncle really needs help"

Shared Goal #3: Create an environment where basic needs such as food can be met (personal need) and where Tim can learn to wait for some needs to be met (learning need)

During early life, Tim sometimes went without food or adult supervision. He needed to learn to fend for himself and can not always trust adults to come through for him.

• There will be some pleasant but healthy fruit and other foods (i.e. muffins, etc.) available in the kitchen. He will be encouraged to only take one at a time (since he sometimes hoards)
• Money and other valuables will be kept out of immediate reach since it may be too tempting

• School will schedule certain critical activities throughout the day. He will help students in the life skills room prepare their morning snack (and share it with them), he is officially helping them at this time
• Afternoon snack will be brought in his lunch and given to the teacher or para in the morning for his afternoon snack
• He will not be left alone in a room where other children’s valuables are available
• Opportunities for physical activity will be embedded in the daily routine

• Tim needs a physical outlet in the evenings and likes swimming so he will be enrolled in swimming with a private instructor (the private instructor also teaches regular classes and Tim may eventually be able to become part of them); this will also give the parents some planned respite
• Some counseling may be made available to help him deal with his compulsion for taking food (it may be designed to help him deal with this desire and control it, rather than eliminate it)

Shared Goal #4: Create an opportunity where completion of work is rewarded (learning need) and where Tim can begin to see himself as a competent learner in new situations (personal/learning need)

• Tim will be encouraged to do household chores and some privileges will be tied to them. Parents will be very directive and supportive initially and remove supports as he is able to demonstrate competence in specific areas
• Tim will be allowed to earn an allowance

• Tasks will be managed so that they are doable but, once given, Tim will be expected to complete them, reading may be provided through a programmed reading program
• Homework will be managed since his foster parents need to spend time developing other skills, however, if it is limited, parents will see that it is done and restrict use of TV and other activities until it is completed
• There will be some activity time that Tim can earn, although this will be connected to a whole class reward system so that he is not singled out for this, the activities will also have an educational component (i.e. time on the computer using educational games
• When problems occur, Tim will be given time to settle down and then the opportunity to connect his actions to the actions taken by the principal or staff – it will not be used to revisit his negative behaviour but to plan for future actions (helping him to feel and be more competent), he may use his drawing skills to plan his actions in private and discuss them when ready, this will make the discussion less personal and increase his ability to deal rationally with the problem

• Tim will work for his uncle on Saturdays (starting simple and building in responsibility and remuneration as he demonstrates ability), care will be taken to provide supervision as needed and extra supports on vulnerable days

Shared Goal #5: Create an environment where Tim can learn new skills (learning need) and possibly develop friendships (learning need)

• Child and Family services social worker will have Tim join an anger management group, this is as much for the social contact with kids in similar circumstances as for the skills training

• Tim will work with a small group on writing, on occasion, the group will address topics on social situations, the writing process will allow opportunity for students to talk, connect to examples and write about areas

• If the need arises, therapeutic support will be provided to help Tim deal with some of the underlying issues that cause conflict beyond those that are due to skills per se
• The recreational director of the Community Club will be approached to see if Tim can join a "cooperative" group activity and if supports could be in place to help him during difficult times