Hi Ladies!
I am in my 8th year of teaching students with special needs and overall, I have a great group of 4th graders this year. However, I have one student who is considered Emotionally Disturbed and I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to get through to him. This is not the first child like with this diagnosis that I've worked with, but is by far the most puzzling to me. I've tried ignoring, punishing, rewarding, taking away privileges, close proximity, setting up cues so he knows when he is pushing the limits, being "no nonsense" and nothing seems to make an impact. I'm at the point where I don't mind ignoring him or having a battle of the wills, but it is starting to interfere with my other students ability to learn and my ability to teach so I have to respond.
Have any others dealt with anything like this? Suggestions? He really is a likeable kid and I don't want to become so focused on his negative aspects that I forget all the positives.
TIA!