Behavior Intervention Plan

Since the school keeps denying services to my daughter, I now have another idea to get her the help she desperately needs. Thanks to a suggestion from a friend, I am requesting the school psychologist conduct an evaluation, observing her behavior (the scratching/skin picking) to determine the antecedents, causes, whatever, and develop a Behavior Intervention Plan to correct the behavior. Usually, I believe a BIP is used for problem behaviors such as hitting, kicking, biting, tantrums... but this is still technically a behavior that is causing her injury, so hopefully this will cover it, since nothing else does. They refuse to even evaluate her for OT, stating that OT can not be a stand alone service, so unless she is already receiving special education services, which she is not, they can not do OT. We just had a private evaluation and will get the results next Friday. So, cross your fingers that this request for a BIP works, and if you happen to know anything about the process (I believe it is called a Functional Behavior Assessment, which leads to the development of a BIP), please share! THanks!

Sleep? Sort of...

So my boy has been sleeping in his own bed the past few days. We are bribing him to do so. However, he is still waking up at least once and needing to be tucked back in. I know I should not complain, but it would be really great if he would sleep straight through the night so we can too. We have tried showing him how to tuck himself, but he apparently can't get it just right. I am going to make him a weighted blanket to see if that will help. More on that later, when I actually find the time and motivation to do it!

Sometimes...

every now and then... I feel like the worst mother and wonder if there really was a reason God made me infertile.

Sleep issues

My son does not sleep. Well, he sleeps, but he is awake by about 1am every night and used to go play or watch tv, occasionally dozing on the couch. We started letting him sleep with us after he got up. We tried a bed on the floor in our room, but he wouldn't use it. So for quite some time, he has been sleeping with us from anywhere from 11pm-3am on. He still tosses and turns a lot, and often ends up pressed up against me to sleep. This makes it impossible for me to sleep well. Plus, he is not getting enough quality sleep. So, we tried melatonin. Went up to 3mg on the neurologist and psychiatrist's advice and he would still wake up. Finally, we tried trazadone. The first night, on 25mg, he slept like a champ, in his bed all the way through to 6:30am! After that first night though, he started waking up again. We raised it to 50mg with no change. Now we are about to start locking him out of our room again, but I am concerned he will just go back to playing and watching tv when he wakes. Really, we need him to sleep, all night, in his bed. Doc said we could go up to 100mg on the trazadone but I am hesitant about medicating my kids. Yes, my daughter is on a couple of things, but we fought tooth and nail before giving in on it. So I am thinking about trying to make a weighted blanket. My son has a lot of sensory issues, and the fact the he likes to sleep pressed up against me makes me think he craves pressure during sleep. So I guess I will be fabric shopping soon!