Gavin is not off to a good start today. This morning, according to eyewitness reports, he purposefully tripped Emmett causing him to fall and hurt himself.
Elliott says that Gavin stuck his leg out as soon as Emmett was running by him. Typically, Elliott is defending Gavin, so I have little reason to suspect that Elliott is not telling the truth. In fact, even Emmett was trying to say that Gavin tripped him.
Based on Gavin’s reaction to being questioned, he did it. My question is why. This time last year, this behavior from Gavin wouldn’t surprise me. However, recently, he has settled down a great deal and so this seems out of character for him.
The other side of the coin is that it appears that Gavin has hit a manic phase. We haven’t seen this in awhile. However, he was up in the middle of the night doing his shows again.
I’m not sure what to do at this point. There has to be consequences for him tripping Emmett, however, if he’s manic again, than he’s doing to be very prone to impulsive behavior. Can we hold him accountable for manic behavior?
You see on TV that get away with crimes because they were manic at the time they committed the crime.
This never gets any easier. Where’s my instruction manual? Hello, at this point, I’d settle for an easy button.
Thoughts?
– Lost and Tired
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Makes total sense…
Agreed, that`s what I do with my son. Intentional hurt or something dangerous has high consequences for my son versus something small that might only require talking to him. Life isn`t going to give him a pass so why should you??? 🙂
That\’s exactly what we do. We have the attitude of, you can\’t punish the blind man for not being able to see, but you can punish him stealing, or something to that effect.
We have always held the boys accountable because that\’s real life.
It\’s just harder with Gavin because, he\’s losing control over his body and we don\’t know if his leg spasmed and he just had no physical control, or he stuck his leg out to trip him.
It\’s hard to punish him for something he physically has no control over, because in essence, he hasn\’t done anything wrong. Does that make sense.?
Sometimes it happens.
People on TV shows don’t get away with crimes committed while in a manic phase, they get put into mental facilities until they are deemed to be no longer a danger to others or themselves. You should not allow Gavin to “get away” with things but you also should weigh the possibility that he IS in a manic phase in the mix when you are doling out punishment and (as you know) stay on the look out for the escalating behaviors leading up to the impulsive behavior, so as to head off any possible impuslitivity, thereby teaching Gavin to recognize when he may be getting to a point of becoming manic, so he can learn to better monitor himself. Even in the most impulsive patients I have seen (as well as my own daughter), there is a “Pre” behavior that goes unnoticed in most kids but since you have such a good handle on Gavin’s behaviors, I am sure you are aware of such changes in his behavior. Hope this blows over soon!!!