Fic workshopping: "Behavioral Intervention"
So I've realized that, while I'm unsure who's reading here, this is probably the place where I should work out fic stuff that I don't know yet if I'm ready to post on Ao3. Probably. So if there's any takers, I've got a weird little bit of fic below.
I'd started writing this for spnspiration and never quite finished it because I got scared that it was totally incomprehensible. I teach special education, and I got into SPN in a big way for the first time while I was in grad school. Which led to inevitable discussions in my house about "how did the Winchesters manage not to qualify for special education" and if they had what would that have looked like.
So years later, I wrote a thing.
And I think there's a non-zero-percent chance that it's not in English. Special ed teachers in general can get very jargon-y, and I am very, very bad about that. It's unfinished so I never posted it to spnspiration, but I figured I might as well post it here, and see if anybody has thoughts about whether it's worth finishing. I'd love to hear what you guys think!
(Just as a note, the models of special ed here are highly anachronistic--in 1984 when Dean would have been in kindergarten, there was not a heavy emphasis on inclusion-based special education and students as highly impacted as the kids featured in this story would probably not have been in general education/mainstream classes. Basically this is modern-day special education set in the 1980's. In case I have any fellow SPED teachers who might call me on that!)
Behavioral Intervention.
Class notes
Beth Edmondson
Itinerant special education teacher K-2
K @ Allentown Elem., Anna Carter’s class
11/15/1984
Georgia making progress on her social goals--in session, in 3 of 4 opportunities she participated in routine group play.
Introduced visual schedule for Tim for transition to lunch (pencil down, paper in desk, push in chair, line up).
Nate’s IEP is coming up due next month--remember to pull him for academic progress check next week.
New student--Dean W., being recommended for evaluation, suspected selective mutism, possible PTSD (violent death of parent). I suspect traumatic rather than selective mutism. Anna having difficulty gauging his level of academic performance due to mutism. Seems engaged & aware, very anxious. Keep an eye on him as his eval processes.
Class notes, 11/20/84
Allentown Elem, Carter
Nate making good progress! Met phonemic awareness goal (!!!), expected progress on answering wh- questions!!
Georgia was more secluded today--only played with Jacqueline and with 2+ verbal prompts joined structured game of Candyland.
Tim utilized visual schedule with 2 prompts, better transition--minimal physical resistance
Pulled Dean into small group today with Georgia, Ben, Paul, and Collin. Modeled ASL for simple gameplay/request making in “Go Fish”. Paul and Collin participated well and used ASL, Ben participated without ASL; Georgia refused to participate.
Dean looked scared but attempted the signs, picked up on them quickly. Signs all recognizable and used correctly. Paul and Collin modeled ASL + verbal language well but Dean used only ASL. Reacted well to my words, instruction, correction, and praise. He seems to understand English at an age-typical level for a child raised in a native-speaking home.
Anna tried to contact dad, no answer. Phone # for motel? Migrant family or new arrivals to town looking for housing?
Class notes, 11/22/84
Allentown Elem Carter
Nate IEP scheduled for next week, SLP unable to attend, will give report
Georgia escalated today, lashed out at Anna, needed to be restrained--parents were notified, Anna was not injured. Georgia responded to walking out of classroom w/me, pressure on arms, breathing exercises. 15min total duration from escalation to return to classroom.
Tim absent.
Dean reacted very strongly to Georgia's outburst: body shaking, tears in eyes, hiding under desk. Worrisome reaction in my opinion. Anna could not coax him out from under the desk, so I stayed in with him at lunch.
He did not respond to my speaking to him--no words of course, barely looked up. I brought out my picture exchange system that I have for Khaleel at George Washington Elem and asked him how he was feeling. Immediately grabbed the “scared” picture. I said that I could see that, and asked if there was a picture that showed a way to make him feel better (available were quiet area, compression vest, hug from a grown-up, walk through hallway, trampoline). He shook his head.
I took out my lunch and went as far under the desk as I could without crowding him. I asked if he had his lunch with him. He nodded, and ran out to get it, running back as fast as he could.
His lunch was insufficient--a cheese sandwich. I gave him half of my grapes and carrot sticks. He ate it very quickly, so I also gave him my bag of chips and a quarter of my sandwich. Food insecurity? (Anna still has not reached dad.)
I asked if he was feeling better. He nodded. I explained that sometimes Georgia gets very scared and that she yells and lashes out because she’s scared, not because she’s mad at anybody. I asked if he knew what that felt like. He nodded. I asked if he was scared of Georgia. He shook his head. I asked if there was a picture that showed what he was scared of. He pulled the picture for “too much noise” (child covering ears with unhappy face). I said that lots of people got scared by too much noise, and showed him the sign for “quiet” to request quiet.
He gave me a hug before he got back to his seat when the other kids came back in from lunch.
Personal diary of Beth Edmondson
11/23/84
I can’t get this kid out of my head.
Anna can’t get in touch with his father, and he’s showing signs of not only past trauma, but continued trauma and food insecurity. Is this a CPS call? Should I call now? It’s speculation. Maybe his family is just poor. The effects of constant low-level stress from poverty can look a lot like trauma, and poverty isn’t abuse. I wish Anna could find the dad.
He’s not even on my caseload. I don’t have time on my schedule for him but I can’t just not work with him. I can work him into small groups with the other kids, and if I have to give up my lunch once in a while, okay.
There’s something up with him. Something’s not right.
Class notes
11/24/84
Nate did a great job today, very satisfied, looking forward to sharing with his parents at the IEP.
Tim absent again.
Georgia tried to attack Dean today. This is very unusual behavior for her--she usually goes after teachers, not peers. She scratched him on the cheek. Once I’d gotten her deescalated and she was safe in the classroom with an assistant watching her, I took Dean to the nurse--he refused to go with Anna.
He sat through the nurse taking care of the scratch and stared at me the whole time. I broke out Khaleel’s pictures again and asked him how he was feeling. He chose sad. I asked if he was scared again, and he shook his head and pulled sad and pushed it at me.
I asked him why he was feeling sad, if it was because Georgia hit him, and he shook his head. I waited, and finally he pointed to his right.
That’s where Tim sits. Tim’s been absent for three days including today, according to Anna. It’s good that Dean is making attachments, but I wondered why he’d be more upset about Tim being out of school than he was about Georgia hurting him.
I asked him if he missed Tim, and he looked exasperated with me and grabbed the book of pictures out of my hands. He rifled through it until he found the picture for the word hurt.
I asked if he was talking about his face, and he looked at me like I was so stupid.
He shoved the picture at me and pointed to his right. Tim’s hurt? He nodded his head.
I told him that Tim was fine, and that he’d be back in school in a few days. He was probably just sick, and it’s okay, everybody is sick sometimes. Dean didn't seem to believe me, but he didn't pull any more pictures.
We went back to class together.
Personal notes
11/24/84
The look that Dean gave me when I told him that Tim was fine was--
I don’t know.
I’ve worked with children with all sorts of challenges--autism, intellectual disabilities, mental health issues from depression to infant-onset schizophrenia. I’ve had kids attack me, bite me, hit me, threaten to kill me. I’ve watched kids have dissociative episodes and psychotic breaks. Nothing scares me anymore.
But Dean looked at me like he knew something I didn’t know, and that it made him sad.
Then I got home and I turned on the news, and Tim Daggart is missing.
Missing person. Like he’s been kidnapped. No trace of him.
Dean said Tim was hurt.
How the fuck did he know?
Class notes
11/29/84
Nate’s IEP went fine and was signed without changes being made.
There’s still no sign of Tim, so Anna and I ran a few small-group socioemotional groups to help the kids process their feelings and see where their heads were.
The kids are scared but by and large don’t understand what’s going on. They know that Tim isn’t in school and that something is wrong with him, but I don’t get the impression that they truly understand that he isn’t just sick. That he’s been taken.
How do you tell kindergarteners that their friend has been kidnapped?
The only kid with the smallest spark of comprehension in his eyes is--of course--Dean W. He teared up during our group, and he used the picture exchange to tell me he was scared for Tim and that he was sad that Tim was not safe.
He actually kind of facilitated the rest of the discussion, in a way. Once he’d shared and I’d helped him voice his thoughts, the other kids talked about being sad or scared, too.
Georgia was in my group, too, and she kept staring at Dean. She hardly ever engages with peers, so this was progress in a way, and she didn’t try to hit him. She looked like she wanted to talk to him.
Wouldn’t that be a thing--Georgia talks for the first time to a kid who’s traumatically mute.
I'd started writing this for spnspiration and never quite finished it because I got scared that it was totally incomprehensible. I teach special education, and I got into SPN in a big way for the first time while I was in grad school. Which led to inevitable discussions in my house about "how did the Winchesters manage not to qualify for special education" and if they had what would that have looked like.
So years later, I wrote a thing.
And I think there's a non-zero-percent chance that it's not in English. Special ed teachers in general can get very jargon-y, and I am very, very bad about that. It's unfinished so I never posted it to spnspiration, but I figured I might as well post it here, and see if anybody has thoughts about whether it's worth finishing. I'd love to hear what you guys think!
(Just as a note, the models of special ed here are highly anachronistic--in 1984 when Dean would have been in kindergarten, there was not a heavy emphasis on inclusion-based special education and students as highly impacted as the kids featured in this story would probably not have been in general education/mainstream classes. Basically this is modern-day special education set in the 1980's. In case I have any fellow SPED teachers who might call me on that!)
Behavioral Intervention.
Class notes
Beth Edmondson
Itinerant special education teacher K-2
K @ Allentown Elem., Anna Carter’s class
11/15/1984
Georgia making progress on her social goals--in session, in 3 of 4 opportunities she participated in routine group play.
Introduced visual schedule for Tim for transition to lunch (pencil down, paper in desk, push in chair, line up).
Nate’s IEP is coming up due next month--remember to pull him for academic progress check next week.
New student--Dean W., being recommended for evaluation, suspected selective mutism, possible PTSD (violent death of parent). I suspect traumatic rather than selective mutism. Anna having difficulty gauging his level of academic performance due to mutism. Seems engaged & aware, very anxious. Keep an eye on him as his eval processes.
Class notes, 11/20/84
Allentown Elem, Carter
Nate making good progress! Met phonemic awareness goal (!!!), expected progress on answering wh- questions!!
Georgia was more secluded today--only played with Jacqueline and with 2+ verbal prompts joined structured game of Candyland.
Tim utilized visual schedule with 2 prompts, better transition--minimal physical resistance
Pulled Dean into small group today with Georgia, Ben, Paul, and Collin. Modeled ASL for simple gameplay/request making in “Go Fish”. Paul and Collin participated well and used ASL, Ben participated without ASL; Georgia refused to participate.
Dean looked scared but attempted the signs, picked up on them quickly. Signs all recognizable and used correctly. Paul and Collin modeled ASL + verbal language well but Dean used only ASL. Reacted well to my words, instruction, correction, and praise. He seems to understand English at an age-typical level for a child raised in a native-speaking home.
Anna tried to contact dad, no answer. Phone # for motel? Migrant family or new arrivals to town looking for housing?
Class notes, 11/22/84
Allentown Elem Carter
Nate IEP scheduled for next week, SLP unable to attend, will give report
Georgia escalated today, lashed out at Anna, needed to be restrained--parents were notified, Anna was not injured. Georgia responded to walking out of classroom w/me, pressure on arms, breathing exercises. 15min total duration from escalation to return to classroom.
Tim absent.
Dean reacted very strongly to Georgia's outburst: body shaking, tears in eyes, hiding under desk. Worrisome reaction in my opinion. Anna could not coax him out from under the desk, so I stayed in with him at lunch.
He did not respond to my speaking to him--no words of course, barely looked up. I brought out my picture exchange system that I have for Khaleel at George Washington Elem and asked him how he was feeling. Immediately grabbed the “scared” picture. I said that I could see that, and asked if there was a picture that showed a way to make him feel better (available were quiet area, compression vest, hug from a grown-up, walk through hallway, trampoline). He shook his head.
I took out my lunch and went as far under the desk as I could without crowding him. I asked if he had his lunch with him. He nodded, and ran out to get it, running back as fast as he could.
His lunch was insufficient--a cheese sandwich. I gave him half of my grapes and carrot sticks. He ate it very quickly, so I also gave him my bag of chips and a quarter of my sandwich. Food insecurity? (Anna still has not reached dad.)
I asked if he was feeling better. He nodded. I explained that sometimes Georgia gets very scared and that she yells and lashes out because she’s scared, not because she’s mad at anybody. I asked if he knew what that felt like. He nodded. I asked if he was scared of Georgia. He shook his head. I asked if there was a picture that showed what he was scared of. He pulled the picture for “too much noise” (child covering ears with unhappy face). I said that lots of people got scared by too much noise, and showed him the sign for “quiet” to request quiet.
He gave me a hug before he got back to his seat when the other kids came back in from lunch.
Personal diary of Beth Edmondson
11/23/84
I can’t get this kid out of my head.
Anna can’t get in touch with his father, and he’s showing signs of not only past trauma, but continued trauma and food insecurity. Is this a CPS call? Should I call now? It’s speculation. Maybe his family is just poor. The effects of constant low-level stress from poverty can look a lot like trauma, and poverty isn’t abuse. I wish Anna could find the dad.
He’s not even on my caseload. I don’t have time on my schedule for him but I can’t just not work with him. I can work him into small groups with the other kids, and if I have to give up my lunch once in a while, okay.
There’s something up with him. Something’s not right.
Class notes
11/24/84
Nate did a great job today, very satisfied, looking forward to sharing with his parents at the IEP.
Tim absent again.
Georgia tried to attack Dean today. This is very unusual behavior for her--she usually goes after teachers, not peers. She scratched him on the cheek. Once I’d gotten her deescalated and she was safe in the classroom with an assistant watching her, I took Dean to the nurse--he refused to go with Anna.
He sat through the nurse taking care of the scratch and stared at me the whole time. I broke out Khaleel’s pictures again and asked him how he was feeling. He chose sad. I asked if he was scared again, and he shook his head and pulled sad and pushed it at me.
I asked him why he was feeling sad, if it was because Georgia hit him, and he shook his head. I waited, and finally he pointed to his right.
That’s where Tim sits. Tim’s been absent for three days including today, according to Anna. It’s good that Dean is making attachments, but I wondered why he’d be more upset about Tim being out of school than he was about Georgia hurting him.
I asked him if he missed Tim, and he looked exasperated with me and grabbed the book of pictures out of my hands. He rifled through it until he found the picture for the word hurt.
I asked if he was talking about his face, and he looked at me like I was so stupid.
He shoved the picture at me and pointed to his right. Tim’s hurt? He nodded his head.
I told him that Tim was fine, and that he’d be back in school in a few days. He was probably just sick, and it’s okay, everybody is sick sometimes. Dean didn't seem to believe me, but he didn't pull any more pictures.
We went back to class together.
Personal notes
11/24/84
The look that Dean gave me when I told him that Tim was fine was--
I don’t know.
I’ve worked with children with all sorts of challenges--autism, intellectual disabilities, mental health issues from depression to infant-onset schizophrenia. I’ve had kids attack me, bite me, hit me, threaten to kill me. I’ve watched kids have dissociative episodes and psychotic breaks. Nothing scares me anymore.
But Dean looked at me like he knew something I didn’t know, and that it made him sad.
Then I got home and I turned on the news, and Tim Daggart is missing.
Missing person. Like he’s been kidnapped. No trace of him.
Dean said Tim was hurt.
How the fuck did he know?
Class notes
11/29/84
Nate’s IEP went fine and was signed without changes being made.
There’s still no sign of Tim, so Anna and I ran a few small-group socioemotional groups to help the kids process their feelings and see where their heads were.
The kids are scared but by and large don’t understand what’s going on. They know that Tim isn’t in school and that something is wrong with him, but I don’t get the impression that they truly understand that he isn’t just sick. That he’s been taken.
How do you tell kindergarteners that their friend has been kidnapped?
The only kid with the smallest spark of comprehension in his eyes is--of course--Dean W. He teared up during our group, and he used the picture exchange to tell me he was scared for Tim and that he was sad that Tim was not safe.
He actually kind of facilitated the rest of the discussion, in a way. Once he’d shared and I’d helped him voice his thoughts, the other kids talked about being sad or scared, too.
Georgia was in my group, too, and she kept staring at Dean. She hardly ever engages with peers, so this was progress in a way, and she didn’t try to hit him. She looked like she wanted to talk to him.
Wouldn’t that be a thing--Georgia talks for the first time to a kid who’s traumatically mute.