Wampum

An Alarming Trend

Mary Beth kindly remarks that when I wrote about autism at PLA, I "made sense of it all, and put the existence of POA (Parents of Autistics) in proper perspective."

She is wrong, of course. I have barely made sense of any of it. Take, for instance, our latest challenge.

We have spent a great deal of time and effort teaching Bobby, my nine year old autistic son, to behave in socially appropriate ways when we are out in public. Part of that training involves trips to public places so that he can get comfortable in the surroundings. I wrote about some of our restaurant training here.

Deb and I work on those skills by taking Bobby places and using everyday experiences as training excercises. We take him to the grocery store, the mall, playgrounds, the movie store, the book store, and various other places. Bobby has become a good shopper. He pushes and stays with the cart, unloads onto the checkout counter, and waits more or less patiently (chocolate helps) for me to pay the bill. He has stopped grabbing or touching items on the shelves or in other people's carts ("Ma'am, I'm sorry that my son grabbed and mashed your loaf of bread. May I get you another? And by the way, if you are heading to the next aisle, be careful not to slip on the syrup that somehow got spilled all over the floor.").

Bobby's teachers have also worked hard with Bobby. They take the class shopping at Target once a week and have outings to McDonalds and other public places. Our strategy seemed to be working and we were gaining confidence in taking Bobby on outings.

It sometimes seems that as soon as progress is made in one dimension, trouble arises in another. It has been said that once is a fluke, twice a coincidence, and three times a trend. If so, we have an alarming trend on our hands.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving was the last day of school before the holiday break. It was a miserable day here in Atlanta, cold with pouring rain.

When Bobby got home from school, we checked his backpack and found a note from his teacher saying that Bobby had pulled a fire alarm in the hall at school. He had never done that before.

School policy is that when a fire alarm sounds, everyone must exit the building. That is a generally sound policy. Bobby did not understand what pulling the fire alarm would cause. He pulled it right in front of his teacher. Everyone knew that there was no fire. One might think that under those circumstances, the policy of having everyone exit the building into the cold and rain could be modified. If so, one would be mistaken.

I felt sorry for the people forced out into the cold rain, but I figured that Bobby pulling the fire alarm was just a fluke.

Last Thursday, we decided to risk eating out. We choose a cafeteria because it is familar terrain. Bobby goes through a cafeteria line at school everyday. I anticipated no problems. There was a short line and Bobby was doing okay. Then, while we waited to get to the trays, Bobby reached around me and, once again, pulled the fire alarm.

I loudly proclaimed, "false alarm, there is no fire" so that no one would panic. I then began to apologize to the manager and the other customers. They were understanding, we stayed for dinner, and we had no further problems. We knew we had at least a coincidence on our hands, and I was expecting that a trend might soon develop.

I was right. Yesterday, we received a phone call from Bobby's school informing us that while on a field trip to Target, Bobby pulled the fire alarm at the store exit.

I went by Target today to apologize to the manager. She was incredibly nice given that having an autistic kid sound a fire alarm during the Christmas shopping season was probably not in her marketing plan. I did a little Christmas shopping at Target to help balance the Karma accounts.

Clearly something is going on with Bobby and fire alarms and we need to develop a strategy to deal with it. Why has he been pulling the alarms? Is it pure mischief making? Is he trying to see how people react to the alarm? Does he like the sound? Is he seeking the attention that acting badly brings?

Maybe. I wish I knew. Could I talk to that guy who has "made sense of it all?"

Actually, I think the answer is none of the above. We have made a concerted effort to get Bobby to understand and obey what the school calls "community signs." Exit signs, stop signs, quiet signs, danger warnings, and others are part of the lesson. Bobby gets shown those signs and drilled on the meanings so that he can learn to conform his behavior to society's requirements. We reward Bobby for obeying those instructions.

Fire alarms are painted an attention-grabbing, bright red. In large, white, capital, block letters, those alarms give a clear instruction: "Pull Down."

Bobby did. Three times now. My guess is that he expected to be praised for such good reading and for following instructions.

If I knew how to "make sense of it all," I would now have a clue as to how to teach Bobby to obey all community signs except fire alarms.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at December 4, 2004 05:01 PM | TrackBack