Yesterday, I was at the We Speak Specialized Intervention Center where I have a part-time (second job) of teaching children with special needs. My “teaching station” was the yellow room. which was next to the red room. At the time I was having my individualized session, I can hear another teacher, my friend Pearl (a speech-language therapist) in the red room. She was in a roomful of children, my son Julian included, ages between 3-6. I think there were about 8 or 9 children in there. They were having their Language Gym class. I always encourage Julian to sit with them although he doesn’t particularly like it. For reasons I can’t disclose, I will just say that the boys in the class there have speech and/or communication and/or behavioral problems.Anyway, from what I was hearing, there seemed to be a ruckus. I think someone did something that the therapists did not find okay. They were asking that particular child to apologize to someone for what he did before he gets back to his chair so that they can continue with what they were doing. I heard Pearl commented, “Naku, parang walang nangyari, tignan mo, parang no remorse siya” (Its as if nothing happened and he didn’t feel any remorse). When I heard her say that, the first thing that came to my mind was the televised court proceedings of the trial regarding a family who was massacred during the early 90s. Prime suspect was the son of a politician. When the verdict was read that he was guilty, his face showed no expression. It was as if he knows what the verdict was going to be. Pearl and I agreed then that it was as if he felt no remorse for what he has done.

What exactly is remorse? Click here for a definition.

It can be said that profiles of the most hardened criminals will show that they have had misbehavior during their childhood. It could be that they were school bullies or were bullied themselves. It could be that they were physically, sexually abused as children. It could also be that they had major stress happening at the early stage in their lives that made them what they’ve become. They murder, mutilate, bomb, set fire, live dangerously, do drugs and they as if do not have an iota of respect for life. Most of them, they show no remorse.I want to dwell on the topic about my supposedly specialty, special education, not about these criminals. During the years that I have been teaching, I have encountered many children with special needs. Some of them have the same diagnosis but had different severities or levels. Most of them have behavioral problems that contribute to their learning problems. Or, it could be the other way around, they have learning problems but they do not have the coping mechanisms to deal with the problem, so they exhibit problems in behavior.There are those children, specifically with ADHD who exhibit impulsivity in their actions as well as their words. They do things that they find pleasurable. They do things that at some point, harm themselves as well as others around them. (I am however proud to say that I do not see the manifestations of such impulsivity in my students.) I have seen children run on out the street without regard if there is an oncoming car. I have seen children push, kick, punch and hurt others (read: other kids or the teachers) for no reason at all. I have seen them throw things on the floor because they wanted to. They have fights with other children at the slightest provocation. They will do things just so they are called “cool” and in order to impress others, not thinking about the consequences that will come after that. To give you an idea, here is a conversation I have had with a former student.

TJ: “Why did you have to punch your classmate knowing that he was only teasing you?”
Kid: “Because I am starting to get mad at what he was doing.”
TJ: “Do you think that that was a solution to the problem?”
Kid: “No.”
TJ: “What should you have done to avoid doing what you did?”
Kid: “I should have told the teacher. I should have ignored him. I should have walked away.”
TJ: “Why didn’t you?”
Kid: “Because I can’t help it, I can’t control myself.”

This is exactly where the problem lies IF IN CASE THESE BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS ARE IGNORED, NOT GIVEN INTERVENTION OR NOT ADDRESSED PROPERLY. They know what to do, they just can’t make themselves to do what should be done, what is deemed proper in the situation they are in. When asked if they thought about the action at that point when they were doing it, they don’t remember. Most of the time too, they show no remorse. They do not apologize for their actions. It can also said that these children should not be involved with friends or gangs who do petty criminal acts like stealing, cheating, drugs, because they do not know the boundaries of what they should and shouldn’t do. Sometimes or most of the time, they do not feel that they were responsible to what they did. It is therefore the parents and the teachers’ responsibilities that they are given counsel. Though I do not say that majority of them will end up like such, still, it is better to give them as much support as we can so that they know what to do when a difficult situation confronts them.

Click here for more insight on this matter.

I do not have the authority to make diagnosis. I am not just making a fuss because this is real, this is happening. I am concerned with this issue (maybe I have been watching too much Criminal Minds that’s why I am in this mood) because I know that as a parent as well as a special ed teacher, there is only so much we can do to help these children cope, adapt, adjust, manage their impulsivity before any serious harm happen to them. It may not come to that if only we recognize the problems and did the necessary steps to help them overcome their problems along they way.To know more about ADHD, click here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 14th, 2006 at 7:34 am and is filed under ADHD, Being a (Special Ed) Teacher, special education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.