The Treadmill

This is a post from Fourth Grade.  Mikey loved the treadmill.

I need to tell you a frustrating and sad story.  The people who were working with Mikey at the time are good people. They are educators who care (still) deeply about Michael.  But a substitute Physical Therapist made a mistake and her actions have had lasting effects on Mikey.

Michael likes the speed on his treadmill at 3.0.  He used to walk for about 10-15 minutes at a time and it was enough to get him some exercise each day at home and at school.  In high school, his Physical Therapist set a goal for him to increase his speed slightly.  One day, he had a substitute PT and things did not go well.

She asked Michael if he would go faster and he said, “No thanks.” She asked two more times and he replied the same way.  Instead of respecting his thoughts as expressed by his words, she reached in front of him and pressed the plus button to speed up the treadmill.  

At this point, Michael became overwhelmed with frustration. He grabbed at her and hit her.  Then, he was so upset with himself that he cried hysterically and began hitting himself in the forehead.  It took him quite a while to calm down.

And to this day, he doesn’t even want to go into any fitness center, and he refuses to walk on the treadmill at home.

Negotiation

Our kids cannot always negotiate at a high level.  A typical kid might express that they don’t feel good, or they absolutely will not walk more quickly.  For Michael, “No, thank you” is the best he can do. He repeated it three times. She didn’t listen to him.

Michael’s response was unacceptable regardless.  There is no circumstance in which it is okay for anyone to lash out and hurt others.  We worked with Michael on this behavior through behavior support plans, social stories and daily reminders to keep a safe body.

My Response

Even people with the best of intentions sometimes forget that our kids are complete people who have a full range of emotions, moods and levels of cooperativeness.  All people have moments where they don’t want to participate.  The difference is that typical folks can use their verbal abilities to talk their way out of lots of things.

I bet that if I had been the one on that treadmill and I had said, ‘no thank you’ three times, no one would have reached into my space and changed the speed on the treadmill while I was on it.  We need to advocate for our kids to be treated as respectfully as anyone else…AND…we need to teach our kids how to handle it safely when the world around them lets them down.