Helpful Steps To Deal With Aggressive Behavior In Autistic Children!

Understanding Autism Spectrum Disorder:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is:

Signs and Symptoms:

People with ASD have difficulty with social communication and interaction, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors. The list below gives some examples of the types of behaviors that are seen in people diagnosed with ASD. Not all people with ASD will show all behaviors, but most will show several. Signs of ASD begin during early childhood and typically last throughout a person’s life.

A. Social communication-interaction behaviors may include:

• Making little or inconsistent eye contact.
• Tending not to look at or listen to people.
• Rarely sharing enjoyment of objects or activities by pointing or showing things to others.
• Failing to, or being slow to, respond to someone calling their name or to other verbal attempts to gain attention.
• Having difficulties with the back and forth of conversation.
• Often talking at length about a favorite subject without noticing that others are not interested or without giving others a chance to respond.
• Having facial expressions, movements, and gestures that do not match what is being said
• Having an unusual tone of voice that may sound sing-song or flat and robot-like.
• Having trouble understanding another person’s point of view or being unable to predict or understand other people’s actions.

B. Restrictive – repetitive behaviors may include:

• Repeating certain behaviors or having unusual behaviors. For example, repeating words or phrases, a behavior called echolalia.
• Having a lasting intense interest in certain topics, such as numbers, details, or facts.
• Having overly focused interests, such as with moving objects or parts of objects.
• Getting upset by slight changes in a routine.
• Being more or less sensitive than other people to sensory input, such as light, noise, clothing, or temperature.

 

People with ASD may also experience sleep problems and irritability. Although people with ASD experience many challenges, they may also have many strengths, including:

• Being able to learn things in detail and remember information for long periods of time.
• Being strong visual and auditory learners.
• Excelling in math, science, music, or art.

 

Causes and Risk Factors:

We do not know all of the causes of ASD. However, we have learned that there are likely many causes for multiple types of ASD. There may be many different factors that make a child more likely to have an ASD, including environmental, biological, and genetic factors.

• Most scientists agree that genes are one of the risk factors that can make a person more likely to develop ASD.
• Children who have a sibling with ASD are at a higher risk of also having ASD.
• Individuals with certain genetic or chromosomal conditions, such as fragile X syndrome or tuberous sclerosis, can have a greater chance of having ASD.
• When taken during pregnancy, the prescription drugs valproic acid and thalidomide have been linked with a higher risk of ASD.
• There is some evidence that the critical period for developing ASD occurs before, during, and immediately after birth.
• Children born to older parents are at greater risk of having ASD.

Diagnosis:

Diagnosing ASD can be difficult since there is no medical test, like a blood test, to diagnose the disorders. Doctors look at the child’s behavior and development to make a diagnosis.

ASD can sometimes be detected at 18 months or younger. By age 2, a diagnosis by an experienced professional can be considered very reliable. However, many children do not receive a final diagnosis until much older. This delay means that children with ASD might not get the early help they need.

Treatment:

There is currently no cure for ASD. However, research shows that early intervention treatment services can improve a child’s development. Early intervention services help children from birth to 3 years old (36 months) learn important skills.

Services can include therapy to help the child talk, walk, and interact with others. Therefore, it is important to talk to your child’s doctor as soon as possible if you think your child has ASD or other developmental problems.

Even if your child has not been diagnosed with an ASD,

he or she may be eligible for early intervention treatment services. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) says that children under the age of 3 years (36 months) who are at risk of having developmental delays may be eligible for services. These services are provided through an early intervention system in your state. Through this system, you can ask for an evaluation.

In addition, treatment for particular symptoms, such as speech therapy for language delays, often does not need to wait for a formal ASD diagnosis.

Cope With Aggressive And Violent Behavior In Your Child With ASD:

For many parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); coping with violent and aggressive behavior can be a very difficult challenge indeed. In this article, I will outline the 2 essential factors that you need to know to cope with such behaviors.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can behave aggressively towards themselves or other people. There are lots of strategies you can use to help prevent and manage your child’s self-injurious or aggressive behavior.

1. Aggressive behavior, self-injury, and an autism spectrum disorder:

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) don’t necessarily express anger, fear, anxiety, or frustration in the same way as other children.

They can sometimes express these feelings through aggressive behavior towards other children. Sometimes they are aggressive towards themselves, which is called self-injurious behavior. They might hit, kick, throw objects or hurt themselves – for example, by head-banging.

Children with ASD might behave aggressively or hurt themselves because of they:

• Have trouble understanding what’s happening around them – for example, what other people are saying or communicating non-verbally.
• Can’t communicate their own wants and needs – for example, they can’t express that they don’t want to do an activity or that they want a particular object.
• Are very anxious and tense.
• Have sensory sensitivities, like oversensitivity to noise or a need for stimulation.
• Want to escape from stressful situations or activities.

2. Understanding aggressive behavior in your child with an autism spectrum disorder:

Understanding what causes your child’s self-injurious and aggressive behavior can help you to change or reduce the behavior.

You can do this by looking at the aggressive behavior as an ABC sandwich:

• Antecedents: these are ‘triggers’ for aggressive or self-injurious behavior.
• Behavior: this is the way your child responds to the trigger.
• Consequences or ‘rewards’: this is what your child gets out of behaving aggressively, like being allowed to go on with a favorite activity, or to leave a stressful situation.

You can work on your child’s aggressive behavior by changing either the triggers or the rewards your child gets from behaving aggressively or self-injuring.

Understanding how well your child can communicate is also a key step in finding out what’s causing the aggressive behavior. When children can’t express feelings or ask for what they need, they might use aggressive behavior to communicate.

It can be helpful to ask yourself, ‘Is he/she trying to tell me something?’. For example, if your child doesn’t like corn flakes but can’t tell you, she might hit you as a way of saying ‘Take it away, I don’t want it!’.

3. Managing an aggressive outburst from your child with an autism spectrum disorder:

You probably can’t prevent every outburst from your child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). But you can try to manage the aggressive behavior when it happens. Here are some tips.

I. Stay calm:

Most aggressive outbursts or tantrums happen because your child has feelings building up and he can’t communicate them. By managing your own feelings and staying calm and quiet, you won’t add your emotions to the mix.

During an outburst, your child will be feeling very stressed. It’s hard to process what someone else is saying when you’re feeling stressed, and this is especially true for children with ASD, who can have trouble understanding language.

II. Limit what you say:

It can help if you limit what you say to short phrases or even just a couple of words – for example, ‘Sit down’ rather than ‘xxx, come over here and sit down’.

III. move your child to a safer place:

You might need to move your child to a safer place, away from anything that could hurt her – for example, shelves that could fall over or glass objects. A quiet enclosed space outside might be an option. You might also need to get other people to move out of the way for safety.

IV. Visual cues:

Also, Visual cues can also help in these situations – for example, you might have a picture of a quiet place in your home that your child can go to.

V. Physical restraint:

If you find you have to use physical restraint when your child has an aggressive outburst, speak with your child’s pediatrician or a behavioral therapist.

4. Managing self-injurious behavior in your child with an autism spectrum disorder:

Working out what your child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is trying to tell you with self-injurious behavior can help you decide how to manage it.

For example,

• Your child might find it hard to switch from one activity to another.
• He might bang his head on the floor when you tell him that it’s time to put away his train set before dinner.
• You could try warning him five minutes before you need him to pack away by showing him a photo of washing hands and sitting at the table for dinner.
• This will give him a warning, plus time to finish what he’s doing.

If your child has been doing a puzzle for 10 minutes and starts to pull his/her hair, he/she might be trying to let you know that she wants to do something else.

• Offering him/her a new activity might stop the hair-pulling.
• Your child might hit himself because he wants you to look at him and talk to him.
• Going over to him/her and giving him/her attention will stop him from hitting himself.

The next step is teaching him to get your attention in another way – for example, by saying ‘Mum’ or coming to you and showing you a help card.

Your child might be feeling frustrated and need help. For example, your child has been playing with a doll but the leg comes off, so he/she starts to scream and scratch himself/herself. If you help him/her fix the doll, it will stop him/her from hurting herself.

The next step is teaching your child to show her frustration in another way – for example, to say, sign or show a picture to tell you when she needs help.

A note about responding to self-injurious behavior:

Giving your child what he wants can strengthen the behavior and make it more likely that your child will behave in the same way in a similar situation in the future.

A better long term strategy is to:

• Prevent behavior by avoiding situations that trigger it.
• Teach your child to express his needs in a more positive way.
• Ignore self-injurious behavior and reward your child when he expresses himself in a more positive way.
• This can be hard to do without professional help to work out why your child is behaving aggressively or self-injuring.

Here’re Tips To Reduce Aggressive Behavior in Autistic Children:

Aggressive behavior is one of the byproducts of this disability.  Children suffering from autism are known to exhibit violent and angry behavior caused by many factors they deem bothersome.  In some cases, the cause for the behavior is somewhat obscured leading parents to take more drastic measures without first understanding the root cause.

That said if you have a child with autism and are looking for ways to reduce these undesirable behaviors, then here are some tips on how you can do just that.  Bear in mind, though, that some of these methods may require you to consult a special education expert, psychologist, or doctor.

1. Get some help:

Technically, this should always be your first option since no matter how much you read about autism, you are not a specialist or expert. There are many specialists you can consider hiring such as a special education teacher, a psychologist, or a behavioral specialist. The latter should be your focus as they are trained on the various aspects of behavior, especially those rooted in a disability such as autism.

This type of specialist will normally need several days to observe the child in his usual environment with the purpose of discovering the factors leading to his exhibition of aggressive behavior. As soon as he can determine the reason for the behavior, he can now design and implement a plan to intervene and rectify the behavior. Remember, learning the true cause will allow you to find a suitable solution.

2. Rule out the senses:

Most of the time, children with autism that show aggressive behavior are troubled by the sensitivity of their senses. Yes, this is normal, as these children will normally find it difficult to deal with certain environmental effects that bother their 5 senses.

For instance, loud sounds, a bad smell, someone touching them, or something they see can trigger unwanted behavior, be it shouting, banging their head on a wall, punching, or any other action considered to be aggressive in nature.  Hence, if these are the identified causes of the behavior, you may want to keep his experiences of these triggers to a minimum.  If possible, create an environment that won’t have these factors.

3. Teach them to communicate:

Sometimes, children with autism get angry and aggressive simply because they want or need something from you but they really can’t verbally communicate their desires to you.  Remember, anyone afflicted with autism is verbally challenged.

Hence, if you can’t respond to their needs, they will become frustrated leading them to tantrums and violence.  So, at an early age, it is key that you train them to communicate their needs to you in a way that you can easily understand, be it via verbal or physical communication.

Finally,

If all these options can’t seem to eliminate the undesirable behaviors, then you can go with the final option, medication. Consult a psychologist about the problem and he should prescribe you medication that will manage the child’s behavior preventing outbursts.  Now, this option should only be considered when you have exhausted the others as most of these meds can really take down the self-esteem of the child.

For more information about ASD statistics, visit:

• The NIMH autism spectrum disorder statistics page
• The CDC autism spectrum disorder data and statistics page
• The CDC Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network

If you find this article useful, don’t forget to share it with your friends and family, as you might help someone in need. Thanks.

Disclaimer: “Nothing in this article makes any claim to offer cures or treatment of any disease or illness. If you are sick please consult with your doctor.”

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