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How to Get Autistic Children to Stop Hitting

Friday, June 20, 2008
Related Tags: child | aggression | behaviors | lollipop | items
 

Instructions

  • Step 1:
    Rule out any medical conditions first. Your child may be trying to communicate pain or discomfort by being aggressive. Take your child to the doctor for an exam to see if this is the case.
  • Step 2:
    Consult a behavior analyst once possible medical causes for aggressive behavior have been ruled out. Behavior analysts specialize in determining the functions or causes of behavior. Once you understand why the aggression is happening, you will be able to come up with some replacement behaviors to help decrease it.
  • Step 3:
    Follow the plan developed for you by the behavior analyst. If your child is aggressive in order to access certain items, for instance, withhold those items when he displays aggression and model a more appropriate way to ask for the item. Give him the item when he asks for it in a more appropriate way. This will teach him that aggression does not work to gain the desired goods.
  • Step 4:
    Remain consistent. Behaviors can become worse and more frequent before improving. If a child has always received a lollipop after hitting someone, then it will take her some time to learn that hitting no longer gains her the candy. The more consistent you are, the more improvement you should see.

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