Monday, August 26, 1996

Program Teaches Social Skills to Belligerent Preschoolers

By MICHELLE KOIDIN
Associated Press

HOUSTON - Booted from day care and kicked out of nursery school, Steven LaCombe was fraying the nerves of the grandparents raising him.

He screamed. He bit. He rammed himself into furniture.

"We were just getting so frazzled," says his grandmother, Shirley LaCombe, who quit her job to stay home with Steven.

So frazzled she wondered if anyone could help her grandson, who had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. She had heard about a new program at Texas Children's Hospital for kids like Steven and decided to give it a shot.

Six months later, the blond, bright-eyed 5-year-old has started kindergarten. He appears to be doing well so far, but it will take about a month to determine if his needs would be better met in a special education class.

His grandmother says the intervention program at Texas Children's opened the door for Steven to enroll in a regular kindergarten class.

"We spent a lot of years at home never going anywhere. Now we can just darn near go anywhere," she says. "We might have a little resistance, but we don't have the tantrums like we did.

"And it seems like we can now logically talk to him. We also know now how to get his attention. We didn't know that before."

The program is designed for children between 2 and 5 who have severe behavior and developmental problems, including ADHD, anxiety, aggression, difficulty with speech and language and autism.

The idea is to teach such children how to handle their limitations before they begin school, where their ability to adapt to social situations directly relates to how well they perform.

Dr. Michelle Forrester, director of the program, says one aspect that makes it unique is every child attends with a parent or guardian partner.

The parents learn how to react to a fit, how to communicate better with their children and how to diffuse a fight over a toy.

Throughout the 12-week course, Forrester and her interns demonstrate how to intervene before one child hits another or throws a temper tantrum.

"Say one child goes over to another child who has a red truck. The child has a language problem and can't get the words out. Someone is there to say, 'Johnny, it looks like you want a turn with that truck.' ... We get over there before Johnny knocks Jacob on the head," Forrester says.

"To interpret and help him get what he needs, sometimes you're reading a look," she adds. "The parents see how we handle it."

Thirty-two kids have completed the semiweekly program, a variation of a program Forrester ran at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The parents continue to meet monthly in a support group.

Instead of forcing the children into an unfamiliar clinical setting, the program is set up like a typical preschool. The kids follow a routine made up of play time, activities, songs and snacks.

"Before we went to that school, he would never hold our hand," Pat Evans said of her 3-year-old autistic grandson, Morgan. "He just ran wild. He would just run and run and run and run, and we would have to run after him.

"He doesn't do that anymore. They taught him how to calm down and listen," Mrs. Evans said.
Last week, Morgan entered a special education class for children with autism.

"We have really made wonderful progress with him," his grandmother said.