An introduction…. Autism and challenging behaviour, sometimes go hand in hand though not always. In my experience the challenging behaviour can be a way that an autistic individual can get your attention or let you know that there is something wrong, They may have a need that they can’t express, be unsure of what they are doing or where they are, where they are going, who all these new faces are around them, and this can lead to “outbursts” , incidents of self harming (biting themselves, hitting, banging heads on walls/doors, scratching or injuring themselves in some way) attacking people in their presence (though sometimes this is directed at anyone near or in their vicinity and not always at parents, carers and siblings-though it may sometimes seem so only as they are the only people around) In my experience a lot of autistic children/teenagers (and anyone on the autistic spectrum-including individuals with aspergers syndrome) need to have structure and routine in their everyday lives, keeping uncertainties to a minimum, a good way of doing this can be by making a timetable of events that follow the same order shown in the form of a timetable, normally weekly, you may update it daily if a weeks information is too much information, two days at a time works well, updated in front of them daily showing today and tomorrow. If the individual has communication difficulties PECS (picture exchange communication system, a way that symbols made of card can be “exchanged” for drinks, cakes, crisps, books toys anything really) can be very helpful, in building a simple communication system, this can be used for an activity timetable for the week as well. Making symbols for PECS and for the activity timetable can be done with WWS2000 a widget program where you can print symbols onto paper or card Another frustration that I have come across with autistic children is that they can have little conceot of time so are sometimes unsure when an activity is going to end, a simple way to get round this which won’t always work but does help is to use a traffic light system with three cards (credit card sized red, amber and green-which I usually laminate and keep with my keys) Offer the green card to the child and allow them to touch it and say “start” or something relevant to you child, when the child is starting to display anxiousness or impatience for the activity to end (and if you have decided that it is near to the end) offer them the amber card and again ask them to touch it while saying something along the lines of “nearly finished” not saying to them 5 or 10 minutes as they can sometimes have no concept of this, the times between offering the amber card and the red card is something that you can adjust as you find works best (but usually around or under 5 minutes) when the activity is over offer the red card and say something along the lines of “finished” Any quieries or questions or need of further information please e-mail me....
National autistic society
Writing with symbols 2000
PECS
