Jill Alcorn Case

Case Study

Section A:

It is chilly Monday morning in mid October, and all the children in Ms. Brown's class are finally getting adjusted to being back in school. Ms. Brown teaches four and five year olds. She loves their fun personalities and their excitement to learn and explore everything. Ms. Brown has been teaching pre-k for about 7 years. Every year is different but for the most part she has a pretty good class. Sadly last Friday, Ms. Brown lost one of her students due to her father being transferred. She was such a sweet little girl and will be missed by the whole class. Today a new little boy will be joining Ms. Brown's class. His name is Trevor, he is 4 years old and this is his 4th pre-k class in fourteen months.

Trevor...

Trevor is an only child. His mom and dad split up when he was only six months old. His dad moved out of state and only calls him on his birthday. Trevor's mom is a full time nursing student and works most evenings at the Waffle House. Trevor started daycare when he was 6 weeks old. He arrives to school at 7 a.m. and stays till 6 p.m. When his mom can't pick him up from daycare, an elderly neighbor picks him up. Trevor's mom has a lot of boyfriends. Sometimes different men will stay several nights of the week. A few of the men will play with Trevor, watch movies or play games. Others are mean and yell at him to go to his room. Trevor doesn't like for his mommy to leave him at school. When it's time to get out of the car, Trevor starts screaming and yelling "I don't want to go to school" to his mom. He also hits, bites and pulls her hair. He does this all the way down the hall and into his classroom. Trevor's mom doesn't know what to do so she just signs him in really fast and leaves him on the floor screaming and kicking. This and other behavior have gotten him kicked out of 3 other preschools in 14 months.

Ms. Brown...

Ms. Brown has had a lot of experience dealing with separation anxiety with her students. Some kids are fine with leaving their parents and others might cry a little and need extra attention at drop off time. Ms. Brown will take a picture of everyone's family for the family tree and for the ones that have a harder time with leaving mom or dad, she prints one out and lets them carry it with them or put it in her cubby. There is also a Safe Place in her room for children to go if they are sad or want to lay down. It has a soft pillow, a warm blanket and a basket of books and manipulatives to help calm them down. She also sends home separation anxiety tips for parents and lets them know it's normal for some children to cry or be upset when their parents leave. Ms. Brown also stresses the importance of them talking about what is going to happen every morning when they get to school with their child and to stay consistent with it.

Mom...

Trevor's mom got pregnant with him from a one night stand. When she informed his dad she was pregnant he wanted her to have an abortion. He stuck around until Trevor was 6 months old and then moved out of state. The only contact she has with him is when he calls for Trevor's birthday once a year if that. She didn't finish high school, and has tried many times to get her GED, but hasn't succeeded. She has worked many dead end jobs. She has had many boyfriends that are in and out of the house several nights a week. She works double shifts and relies on her neighbor to pick Trevor up from school. She gets home from work around Trevor's bedtime. Picks him up from the neighbor, takes him and puts him to bed. When she is around Trevor, she is exhausted and not in the mood to deal with his behavior so she gives into his tantrums.

On the first day of school for Trevor, mom woke up late. She got Trevor out of bed, went right to car and put him in his car seat in the car. They drove to the school, she had to wake him up and put his clothes on him in the parking lot. Half asleep Trevor finally realizes he is in another school and starts to scream at the top of his lungs. His mom is doing her best to get information from the office assistant but finally just asks for his room number and yells that she's late and doesn't have time for this today. The assistant walks her down to the before care room and lets them in. The before care teacher, Ms. Molly greets them at the door and tells mom to sign in. Trevor is still screaming and has a huge hand full of his mom's hair. Ms. Molly shows mom to a place Trevor can put his coat and his mom just puts him on the floor hollers at him to stop yelling or he'll be in big trouble tonight and then walks out of the room. Trevor runs to the door and tries to open the door. Ms. Molly keeps him from opening the door and Trevor kicks her. He finally stops screaming and runs over to a shelf and pushes it over. Needless to say the rest of his time in before care was spent with Ms. Molly in the safe place. Ms. Brown comes to the before care to pick up Trevor and he starts screaming and yelling "I don't want to go with you". Ms. Brown tries to talk to him and interest him in helping her hold papers down the hall. Finally she has to pick him and carry him down the hall. He tries to pull her hair, and bite her. When they finally reach Ms. Browns classroom, Trevor runs to a corner in the classroom. Ms. Brown decides to let him just calm down and take it all in. As soon as other children start to come into the room and find activities at the table,