Tips for Managing Aggressive Behaviors in a Child with ASD
Sometimes children with Autism Spectrum Disorder have difficulty communicating their wants and needs and resort to aggressive behavior to get their point across. In order to avoid aggressive behavior in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, we should do our best to use proactive strategies that can prevent the behavior from occurring in the first place. Some proactive strategies include:
a. Giving the child choices
b. Following a schedule
c. Using a reward system for good behavior
d. Environmental modifications: if the tablet is off limits, keep it out of sight. If your child doesn’t like bath time, use toys and bubbles to make baths more fun.
e. Functional communication: prompt the child to use their words, signs, or pictures to communicate what they want.
A functional behavior assessment (FBA) conducted by a qualified provider is the only way to determine the function (reason) your child engages in aggression and recommended an individualized treatment plan. Below are some general strategies that may be applied if proactive strategies do not work and the child engages in aggression:
Extinction: Ignore the aggression. This does NOT mean ignore the child; rather, ignore the negative behavior. If your child begins hitting you, do not react to it. Instead, you can look in the other direction, walk away and protect yourself. It’s very important not to make any eye contact with the child during this time. Any type of attention given to this behavior can be reinforcing, and therefore the behavior may increase in the future.
Prompting: Once the aggression has ceased and behavior appears to be de-escalating, prompt the child to use their language (words, signs, or pictures) to communicate their wants and needs. Sometimes, children don’t have the words that they’re looking for in their vocabulary, so they become frustrated and engage in aggressive behaviors.
Redirection: Redirect the child to a different activity. This works if the child is upset over a toy being taken away, or being told “no”. It’s best to try to distract the child from what’s happening by redirecting them to something else. If you believe your child engaged in aggression to escape something non-preferred, redirection should not be applied.
Differential Reinforcement: Reinforce the child when they engage in behaviors besides aggression. This will teach the child that they get rewarded when they engage in appropriate behaviors. When your child uses communication, try to reward this as often as possible.
In the end, it’s important to remember not to give into the child and give them what they want for engaging in aggression. If your child engages in aggressive behavior, you may want to seek assessment and treatment by a qualified professional specializing in applied behavior analysis. In the meantime, the best thing a parent can do is to stay consistent and use these strategies each time your child engages in aggression. Remember, it will always get worse before it gets better, and as challenging as it may be, every opportunity is a teaching opportunity!
Colleen Mara, ACD, Philadelphia
Tuesday, September 29, 2020