I have, regularly attending, four children in my class. Two are boy/girl siblings with Autism, the 3rd has behavioural issues that are exacerbated by the other little boys behaviour and the last is scared stiff of coming to class because the others are so wild! They are 3 and 4, I teach out of Primary 1.
I have no tables or chairs in my room, I even took down the curtains (with permission) because of the constant opening and closing, (I've even considered taking out the light bulb to stop the switch flicking but it's a strip light) We sit on the floor and have a snack - Our lesson is last so we need the break - then I get out some toys and the kids run around and stand all over each other while I try to deliver the lesson to varying degrees of success. If I don't have toys the little boy with Autism will run from the room as soon as the banana is finished, with the toys he lasts, on average, 15 minutes, before running from the room. The toys cause disruption for the others but I can't really have 1 rule for one, and I doubt I'd be able to enforce it anyway!
It was definitely getting better each week but now seems to be at a standstill.
I desperately need an assistant, preferably priesthood but I'm still waiting. (I used to have the siblings Mum but she asked for a release)
I just feel that the manual is SO over their heads most of the time, even the little bit at the end 'for younger children'. I usually get one principle across e.g.: 'be kind to animals' while they play with a Noah's ark. I feel incredibly disheartened every week, I don't look forward to teaching and I feel like they are learning nothing. The advice for children with special needs says that if there is a disruption then stop the lesson until they are listening, if I did this then I'd never START the lesson!
Any ideas?
