Re: & Eva Introduction

[Guest guest]

Hi, I'm glad you found us! Your daughter sounds like a fun young

lady!

Having a daughter myself, my first (and perhaps irrational) thought

and fear whenever we've been faced with situations where she

suddenly starts REFUSING to go somewhere where she has previously

gone quite happily is the possibility of unwanted sexual advances on

the part of an adult or fellow student. Sorry, I don't mean to be

alarmist! It's just that it's something we always worry about

in the backs of our minds.

OR have their been any changes to her schedule, work assignments,

tasks, teachers/supervisors/job coaches or anything like that?

Sometimes just getting a new job task that she didn't like or didn't

fully understand could set us off.

For example, one summer started saying 'I don't want to go'.

Then came 'boy scares me' and crying. You can imagine me freaking

out. Turns out it was merely a new student being assigned to her

homeroom class who needed to share some of her physical space in the

room...and she didn't know what to do! I guess it made her really

mad and scared, because that's what she finally told me. This boy's

IEP required him to take turns on a 'break mat' with her. So we

worked it to the point where she'd just say 'your turn is almost

over' over and over again to herself while he was on the mat, and

that perseverative self-talk got her thru. Probably drove everyone

else crazy, but it worked for her. And the 'I don't want to go'

to school talk stopped. (The boy, by the way, was not in her

regular school year class so the situation stopped at end of summer,

we didn't have a chance to help her move further along with the

coping strategies.)

Your situation, of course, may be completely different. I was just

throwing out some alternative, hopefully less serious measures, than

finding a psychotherapist skilled with our DD population. Perhaps

other parents will have some better suggestions. Good luck with it

all, and please keep us posted.

Laurie