Aussie Childcare Network Forum

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?

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

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.

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

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

SJayDee wrote: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

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.

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

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