Ask any parent of a child with disabilities, behavioral challenges come with the territory. Socially unacceptable behavior can interfere in every aspect of life, family, friends and education.

Herein lies the problem.

Even in the 21st Century, school districts maintain the belief that physical restraints are appropriate behavioral interventions for children with disabilities.

The Alliance to Prevent Restraint, Aversive Interventions and Seclusion (APRAIS) put together a booklet titled “In the Name of Treatment.”

Within it they state:

“Across the country, teachers, aides and program staff who have been entrusted with children’s care, protection, education and development are subjecting them to this ‘treatment.’ In fact, such negative and dangerous activities are often inappropriately included as part of these children’s education plans in the hope that they will reduce the occurrence of unwanted behavior. Children learn nothing about acceptable behavior from the experience of being hurt, secluded or immobilized by their caregivers.”

Altering this negative mindset can provide successful behavior intervention. Communication, in any form, is a critical form of expressing likes, dislikes, thoughts and feelings. Affectively communicating these fundamental concepts is often difficult for children with disabilities; frustration can generate unwanted behavior.

Districts manipulate a child’s behavior without analyzing what the child is trying to communicate. Without appropriate knowledge and training of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), districts will continue to abuse children with disabilities.

In 2004, the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provided parents legal support for PBIS. “The goal of PBIS is not merely to suppress or eliminate unwanted responses but to understand and respond thoughtfully to its cause and/or purpose. The child can then be assisted to substitute more appropriate and effective behaviors, including better ways to make his or her feelings, needs, and choices known.”

Replacing unwanted behavior with the skill to communicate is a win-win situation.

Parents often hear, “We have to use restraints when a child becomes a danger to themselves or other students; the restraints used are safe.”

Debunking the “Myth of Safe Restraint,” issues with medically fragile children with disabilities vary from one child to another. Pharmacological treatments can leave a child at risk of respiratory problems created by surges of adrenaline under restraints. Situations of adult versus child bring up a human factor. Anxious children restrained by an adult fight back, quickly escalating the situation out of control.

“There have been many cases in which children have died due to restraint for a minor incident that escalated out of control,” reports APRAIS.

Programs that utilized aversive intervention techniques narrow their focus on short-term behavior problems. This intervention technique intended to reduce outburst can cause lifelong behavior issues.

“A child repeatedly subjected to these techniques grows up feeling helpless, frightened, frustrated or angry. ... The child becomes less able to control emotions, to pay attention, or to take in new information and use it to make appropriate decisions. Eventually, such a child may misinterpret even the well-intended actions of others as threatening.”