ABSTRACT
Brandon, a 7-year-old boy in the first grade, was referred to the school child study team. Brandon's teacher reported that he had extreme difficulty getting along with peers and that he was often physically aggressive. The first author of this book, a member of the team, was asked to observe Brandon in the classroom and on the playground. The classroom observation took place during an academic activity in which the students were writing spelling words from the chalkboard onto their papers. Brandon quickly lost interest in the activity and tried to get the attention of a student sitting behind him. Cupping his hands to his mouth and making a strange face, Brandon repeatedly whispered “hey you!” to his neighbor. When this ploy failed to get the attention of the other student, Brandon poked him in the shoulder with a sharpened pencil, which resulted in a loud cry of “stop it!” and a warning from the teacher. The playground observation took place during morning recess on a very frigid January day. Most of the 60 or so students simply stood near the building, huddled with their hands in their pockets. Brandon and about 10 others elected to play on the jungle gym and tunnel slide. During the 10-minute observation period, it was noted that Brandon engaged in 24 different acts of physical aggression (hitting, shoving, kicking, and the like) while continually making verbal threats or insults to his peers. Within a few weeks, a full-blown special education eligibility assessment was in process. During an interview and testing session when Brandon was asked how he got along with other kids, he became stoic, appeared to hold back tears, and tersely stated, “They all hate me.”
