Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hi!

Iam working in a Child Care and also in Before and after school hours and we are having some problems with Aggressive Autistic Children.
In Child Care courses they just teach us what is Autism but not how to deal with them when they became aggressive towards staff and other children.
We had situations when staff and other children got punched in their faces, kicked, scratched and bitten to the point we don't know what else we could do .
As we are before and after school care we have a mix of ages from 4 until 9 years old and my concern is also that this aggressive Autistic children (That are older) can hurt badly a young child and also as a group leader I should keep my staff safe too.
My questions is:
Should we accept these children and put in risk the safety of other children and staff?
As we don't have any kind of training in Child care courses should we deal with that?
What are the regulations( if there is any) that protects staff and Children against violent children?

That is a very good question and am glad you raised this, because Im sure other educators would like to know. I myself would like to know because we arent trained to deal with Austistic children and I believe they need the special attention they deserve (like one on one) and at Daycare facilities, it is very hard to do this.

Hello,

Above you have got all the ways to handle an autistic child with aggressive behaviour. But I would like to add some more points.

A better long-term strategy is to:
prevent the behaviour by avoiding situations that trigger it.
teach your child to express needs in a more positive way.
ignore self-injurious behaviour and reward your child when they express things in a more positive way

Apart from these,

Use a daily timetable.
Use a 'now and next' board.
Use social stories.
Sit with them and talk about their feelings and emotions.
Be empathetic. Empathy means listening and acknowledging their struggle without judgment.
Make them feel safe and loved.
Eliminate punishments.
Focus on your child, not staring bystanders.
Break out your sensory toolkit.
Teach them coping strategies once they're calm

Hope this will work for you

Thanks

Nandita