Brooklyn does this thing where she becomes non verbal when she's upset. Not just angry, but also sad or scared. She won't talk, won't make eye contact, basically she just does her best to give you the cold shoulder. Joe and I have found our ways around it, usually we can give her the space she needs and she'll tell us what's up or we can talk her out of it at times.
Well, today at school it happened with the teacher. Brooklyn is not overly vocal at school. In fact Brooklyn wont speak to the teacher unless it is ABSOLUTELY 100% necessary (asking to go to the bathroom, responding to a question, etc). Today Brooklyn scratched another child with a pencil. The boy sitting next to her had a good size red mark on his leg, but it didn't break the skin. The teacher asked Brooklyn what happened and Brooklyn became 100% non-verbal. Refusing to make eye contact, refusing to say sorry to the boy, refusing to even give her side of the story. Brooklyn missed part of recess in punishment for hurting the boy.
I ran into the teacher while I was volunteering at the book fair and she explained what happened to me. Thankfully this gave me a bit of time to think about how it would be best to approach Brooklyn later that afternoon. When I got her from class we stood away from all the people, and while we were waiting for Aiden and Alayna I asked her about what happened. She went non-verbal. So, I held her hands (something that tends to help at times) and asked if she meant to hurt him, she finally said no. I asked her if he did something to her; hurt her, took something from her, said something mean, etc. She said no, it was an accident I didn't mean to do it.
So, my girl was punished for an accident :( I feel bad for her. But, I told her that if she doesn't tell her teacher what happened, if she doesn't give her side of the story this type of thing will happen. She may get into trouble for something she didn't mean to do. And this poor boy, thinking the girl next to him just got mad for some reason and tried to slice his leg open with a pencil... Brooklyn also said she was scared she'd get into more trouble, either with me or with the teacher. I can say I really like how her teacher handled that. She took Brooklyn's hand and said "Sweetie, it's over. You already got in trouble for it, you can't get in trouble for it again."
Don't get me wrong, Brooklyn has had her issues with aggression. Generally Aiden is her target, less often her target is Bella. Those are really her only two targets, and only when she feels "justified". They didn't listen, Aiden tried to tell her what to do, someone took a toy, etc. Brooklyn has never had any aggression problems towards other kids. Her entire 6 months of pre-school last year she never reacted aggressively to any of the kids there, even when she would have been justified in doing so.
I wish I knew what was going through her head. I wish she could verbalize her thoughts and feelings for me. I wish I could do something to help her.
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