Appropriate Behaviour Guidelines for Children Diagnosed with Autism

[blissneso]

I spent some time during my work day with a child in the preschool aged group that had been recently diagnosed with Autism. The child responded well to being given simple tasks to complete and responsibility such as being the special helper in games and activities. If he wasn't directly involved in the activity he would break away from the group and go to a corner by himself. Whilst we were in the outside play area I had seen him forcefully removing another child from the playhouse and i came over to playhouse i told him that i was watching what he was doing and that he was to stop it immediately. He stopped grappling the child but not long after he picked up a cricket bat and started lining it up to hit the same child with the bat. I removed the bat from his grasp and as I was doing so I said "no, we do not hit our friends". Surprisingly he didn't object to the bat being removed and it was clear that he understood he was doing something wrong. All day he would have something in his mouth that he was sucking on. Firstly, it was a bit of plastic and after that it was the metal beater for the triangle instrument. After i had repeatedly told him how dangerous it was to have a piece of metal in his mouth and then went the next step and asked him to remove it from his mouth and give it to me. He said "no" and threatened to bite my face. I told him "no you won't do that because it is not a nice thing to do" and then removed my face away from biting range. Another educator had just told me before that when he makes a threat he always follows through, that he had been threatening to kick the other children earlier and apparently he did kick them. Later on that day another educator made a passing comment that the metal in his mouth was very dangerous and i replied that i had asked him to remove it but he had not listened to me and that it might have to be forcibly removed. I was tending to another child at the time so I did not see what happened next but later on i noticed that he did not have the metal in his mouth after that. This makes me think i am too soft on the children but as i don't know them yet I don't want them to see me as someone who always tells them off and takes things from them. How do i find the balance between protecting the child's physical and psychological health? This was a very scary situation for me because i don't know what i would have done if the child had actually bitten my face. I am wondering if the near-miss face-biting incident is important enough to tell the other educators about. Do you think he was just testing my limits?

I want to be able engage him in activities that interest him and keep his mind occupied so that he doesn't feel the need to be aggressive. Do you have any suggestions of some activities and/or methods of dealing with behaviour in children diagnosed with Autism?

[linsaa fdc]

Hi Blissneso,

I have found these free online workshops extremely helpful. It gives you a lot of information and gives us the person's perspective with the disability/autism/etc , you will gain a lot of very helpful insight from them and you can also print out a certificate for proof of PD.
The website is called Disability Matters and its in the UK.

https://www.disabilitymatters.org.uk/

All the best
Linsaa fdc

[Lorina]

You may also need to get external services to support educators as well as this child such as inclusion support. They will assist you in developing plans and strategies to work with the child and his family if required...

,
Lorina

[blissneso]

The same boy that i was talking about earlier in the thread that was displaying aggressive behaviour punched another one of the relief staff in the nose today. I had a discussion with her about my personal experience and she told me that she had discussed the incident with the room leader but was just brushed off with "oh, he has been diagnosed with Autism". I sympathised with her as i had the same feelings of not feeling good about being threatened or being in a situation where someone shows aggression towards me. I gave her some advice of not getting her face too close to him but I would like to do more to try to improve his behaviour so that he understands that the aggressive behaviour is not OK. Any suggestions?
Thank you for letting me know about the online workshops Linsaa, I will check it out.
And thank you for your input Lorina, I would love to find out the strategies and maybe this online workshops will help.

[linsaa fdc]

Oh no, I haven't had to deal with this before so I can't give you any personal tips. But i did do the workshops and i can't recommend them highly enough. My sister is a school teacher and has a small class of 5 with special needs, she did the workshops also and said they helped her a lot.
All the best

[SJayDee]

Hi there, sorry about your experience, I have been in this position and it can be quite unsettling. I would hope that the room leader would already be implementing strategies to manage this behavior.
I'm currently the room leader in a preschool room where we have 2 children on medication for ADD and 1 who is on the Autism spectrum. Here are some of our strategies that we have implemented.
-Extra staff member. We have a support worker for the 5 days and a 4th staff member 1 day a week when all 3 children attend.
-Visual Routine
-We had training with an OT who gave us some great strategies about how to deal with emotions and resetting the nervous system. So we have a crash mat, where they can go and be snuggled in a fetal position - bringing their anxiety levels back down. Also look into "crossing the midline" these are activities that can help. The idea of this is to release their energy and divert their energy before they reach that level where they will hurt you, other children or even their self.
-Separate routine. These children can't function in a normal every day routine like the other children can. Whilst they can be involved in some activities its just way to overwhelming for them to be in large groups and when they become overwhelmed and over stimulated their anxiety levels increase. So I've implmented a seperate routine. The join up with the main class for meals and small group activities but there are 3 separate occasions where they are taken from teh group to do these heavy lifting and midline activities.

I'll try to find some info on google for you to have a look at

[Lorina]

Hi there, sorry about your experience, I have been in this position and it can be quite unsettling. I would hope that the room leader would already be implementing strategies to manage this behavior.
I'm currently the room leader in a preschool room where we have 2 children on medication for ADD and 1 who is on the Autism spectrum. Here are some of our strategies that we have implemented.
-Extra staff member. We have a support worker for the 5 days and a 4th staff member 1 day a week when all 3 children attend.
-Visual Routine
-We had training with an OT who gave us some great strategies about how to deal with emotions and resetting the nervous system. So we have a crash mat, where they can go and be snuggled in a fetal position - bringing their anxiety levels back down. Also look into "crossing the midline" these are activities that can help. The idea of this is to release their energy and divert their energy before they reach that level where they will hurt you, other children or even their self.
-Separate routine. These children can't function in a normal every day routine like the other children can. Whilst they can be involved in some activities its just way to overwhelming for them to be in large groups and when they become overwhelmed and over stimulated their anxiety levels increase. So I've implmented a seperate routine. The join up with the main class for meals and small group activities but there are 3 separate occasions where they are taken from teh group to do these heavy lifting and midline activities.

I'll try to find some info on google for you to have a look at

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and strategies! Really helps gain an understanding of some of the strategies that can be implemented to support the child!

,
Lorina

[blissneso]

Thanks SjayDee! I am currently doing some more research and all the information you have provided me will really help me along. I like the idea of the "crossing the midline" activities. I can't wait to learn more about them and see how effective they are in helping the children regulate their behaviour.

[Lorina]

Crossing the Midline

Imagine a line dividing your body into right and left sides. Crossing Midline includes any activity that requires one side to cross into the other side. Imagine using both hands to put on your shoes and socks, brushing your teeth, using your tongue to manipulate food from one side of your mouth to the other, combing your hair, reading, writing, etc.

Symptoms:

Children who do not cross midline often do not develop hand dominance which should be determined by age 5. Children who do not cross midline often show symptoms including:

poor fine motor control (immature pencil grasp, poor manipulation skills)
poor bilateral coordination (catching a ball, cutting skills)
poor upper/lower body coordination (jumping jacks, riding a bike)
poor right/left discrimination
becoming “stuck” in mid-reach and having to switch hands

Gross Motor Activities

Cross crawls (bring your opposite hand, or elbow, to your opposite knee)
Behind-the-back cross crawls (touch your right hand to your left food behind your back so the child uses body awareness instead of vision!)
Sit criss-cross and throw a ball to a target on the opposite side of the body (look for core rotation). Gradually increase the angle of the throw.
Sit back-to-back (or for a group sit in a circle) and use trunk rotation to turn and pass an object (i.e.: ball). Remember to go 10-20x both directions!
Simon Says or Hokey Pokey for right/left discrimination i.e.: “Touch your left ear with your right hand”

Fine Motor Activities

Hand games (Patty-cake, etc.)
Bongo drums (may have to use stickers to match opposite hand to opposite drum)
Restrict one hand, and use opposite hand to reach/grasp a variety of items, remember to reverse so both preferred and non-preferred hands are used. (i.e.: Memory game cards, puzzle pieces, anything!)
Place x10 coins or playing cards as a semi-circle across the table. Make sure child is exactly in the middle of the table and does not lean over to compensate. Use one hand to flip each item over than the opposite hand to flip over again.
“Infinity 8” – draw a horizontal 8 on the table, or better yet on a vertical surface such as a mirror or easel. Position the child exactly in the middle then trace the 8 with both hands together, then right, then left. Do 5-10 loops per hand. This can be especially fun with shaving cream and toy cars to make a “racetrack” on your table or window
Wand play: Make a “Racetrack” (figure 8), “Ferris Wheel” circles (in front), and “Helicopter” blades (overhead) with bubble wands, streamers, scarves, ribbons, etc.

Ref: Crossing The Midline

Very interesting... just thought I'd add for those wondering!

,
Lorina

[blissneso]

Thanks for all that information Lorina, It will be very useful!

[Lorina]

You're welcome! It is very handy information to support children with autism.

,
Lorina

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