Help for Billy: A Beyond Consequences Approaching to Helping Challenging Children in the Classroom

by Heather T. Forbes

Billy: As Billy was developing as a fetus, his mom was furious about being pregnant. Her boyfriend had lied to her about not being fertile. She tried to hide her pregnancy from her family but was discovered and kicked out of her home. She had no alternative but to go live with an abusive boyfriend. Billy was delivered four weeks premature, needed immediate medical attention, and was in an Isolette for the first two weeks of his life. Upon coming home from the hospital, his mother found a new job and placed him in day care at six weeks old. His mother had difficulty keeping employment and thus they moved frequently during the first five years of his life. He had multiple caregivers during this time. When his mother was home with him, she was quite unresponsive due to being overwhelmed, stressed, and without financial or emotional support. Billy had difficulty even in kindergarten, and by age eight his experiences in the school environment were more about being disciplined and punished than about learning and creating. He was the child the teachers dreaded having in class.