The thing with Interment Explosion disorder (IED) is that you don’t even know that the fuse has been lit or how to defuse it, because just blowing it out doesn’t work.
After two years of home-schooling KC, his father and I decided that he needed to be in public school, he needed the structure that is provided. We also decided that he would repeat 1st grade because of his birthday being in August. He made the cut-off to be in second grade, but we thought it would be best to start him in first.
After about a month into the year, KC was getting upset easily and acting out through yelling at classmates for little things they had done. At first, we thought it was just because he didn’t like change and was trying to get use to all the changes that were going on. The problem was that it wasn’t getting better, in fact, it was getting a little worse.
We spoke to his teacher, who adored KC and was more than willing to help us out. He started a behavior chart. This helped for about the first two weeks and then it seemed to cause more issues. We sought out counsel from the school counselor who spoke with him weekly, and it looked like that was helping. There was a pattern that started to arise; it would only be about two weeks before it wasn’t having the same effect.
To say KC was keeping us on our toes and working to find new ways to help him cope, would be the understatement of the year! We worked hard that first year to find what worked best for him, changing things in all aspects, rewards and consequences. By the end of the year, he was doing better and I was finally able to breathe. I was ready to put the year behind us and start the summer.
Unfortunately, the summer brought a whole new joy of challenges and frustrations. I worked for an after school /summer program in which KC was able to participate. You’ll never guess what happened! Yep, more issues. He would blow up at other kids for no reason or just a minor one. It was extremely hard to do my job having to deal with the issues he brought to the table. I am very thankful that my director was also a good friend who tagged teamed him with me.
I remember one time when KC went off screaming and yelling over a child taking a Lego piece that was near him. It was so bad I had to restrain him into the kitchen area where he screamed and slammed himself into the table, attacked the door trying to get out.
It seemed no matter what I tried nothing worked. I was ready for him to go back to school. Little did I know that the year ahead would come with more problems than I could ever think of.