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Around the age of 7, I started to experience many different behavioral problems that resulted in affecting my academic performance. I was placed into a hospital. I stayed there for a couple of months and was placed on different medications. My mother had felt that I was doing well and thought that it would be good for me to come home. I then started to see a counselor to help me with my behavioral issues. Between the ages of 8 and 15, I was placed in Westborough State Hospital, due to me having problems with behavioral issues and academic. I was in Westwood Lodge Hospital and a hospital in New Hampshire. I was also in a hospital in Holyoke called Charles River hospital and several other programs that failed to meet my needs. At the age of 15, I was placed into the Judge Rotenberg Center. My first months in the program were really hard because I was on so much medication. When I came into the program I was on several different types of medications that were not necessary. When they began to take me off the medications my behaviors escalated. I was so used to being on medication that I thought the only way I could concentrate was through the use of medication. At the time I was unable to be in a regular classroom because my behaviors were too disruptive for the classroom setting and there were several times that I was not able to go to school because I was causing a lot of problems. Before I began level III treatment I had a lot of inappropriate behaviors. After being in the program for about 5 months I was placed on the graduated electronic decelerator (GED), which was part of level III treatment. When the use of the GED device came into my program I was able to sit in a regular classroom and I was able to finally work on academics. After being on GED device I was able to start to go on home visits and move into other houses. Before the GED device I was unable to move to other houses because my behaviors were too dangerous. Now that I have been on GED device I have shown a lot of improvements in many different behavioral areas. I did have a couple of down falls since I have been on the GED device, but I did not let them escalate into other issues to do with aggressive episodes. I am currently working in the school, attending classes out in the community, and I have destination independence in school. I am also working on leaving the program since I have been doing so well and have been working really hard to accomplish most of my goals that I have set. One of the goals that I have set is to be faded from the GED device for six months in order for me to leave the program to go to a different program. I can now go on home visits using public transportation without having any staff go with me. When I first came to the program I thought that it wasn’t going to be a possibility for me to do any of these things. I am also working towards being able to leave the program and go home or to a different program that is closer to home, but it is also dependent upon my behaviors while I am at JRC and also by the way that I act on my home visits. - Jennel |