Autistic Preteens and Aggressiveness?

Question

I work with an Autistic child one to one and he is 10 year old. The toys are now weapons. He never used to bite now he is. The mom says he is doing the same thing at home. Also, I am a little conserned he is doing the "in your face thing" with me. Like, he always has a need to be in my lap. Is any of this stuff normal at his age? What can I do differently with him? (He doesn't talk.)

Answer 1

It is so hard for autistic children in every day life. Then as they start growing older puberty and hormones just make it a whole heap worse. A lot of autistic children go through this phase as they very often do not understand what is happening to them. Their bodies are changing and the way they think about certain things will be changing. The aggression is a certain sign of frustration and probably being quite frightened of what is happening to him and his feelings. The best way to deal with this is a lot of patience. Perhaps try getting a book of social stories about growing up and how we are expected to behave. Most autistic children respond very well to social stories and it can help to get them to open up and discuss their feelings. You still have to keep boundaries in place but be mind full of all the changes that this boy is going through and how autistic children hate any change. I wish you good luck.

Answer 2

I work with teeagers with autism. There is one boy that is doing the same thing. He is in your face, hits, bites and scraches. Last week he through a dest twice. We have him on a behavior modifcation plan and now is placed with a with a one on one. Every time he is vilonet he is sent home. The reason is we cannot let him harm staff or other students. I would suggest that you talk with the teacher and the parents to place him on a behaivor plan. He may need a drifferent placement.

Answer 3

This child needs Applied Behavioral Analysis with a focus on Verbal Behavior and Theory of Mind.  Please read up on these topics.  Three years ago, my son was throwing chairs across the classroom and even stabbed a teacher with a pencil.  Now he is 9 years old, at grade level with very minimal behaviors.  But it took a highly-skilled and highly-trained one-to-one behaviorist to make it happen.  It also took extreme consistency across all environments including home.  ABA, Verbal Behavior and Theory of Mind saved my child's life and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Behavior is a form of communication.  As he gets older, he has more to "say" but it doesn't sound like he has been taught functional communication.  You may want to check out PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System).  PECS should be taught by a certified person.  My non-profit creates PECS books for a donation.  PECS are icons of different things with velcro on the back.  Whatever the child is trying to say, he is taught to choose an icon and stick it to a sentence strip or other place to communicate.  One typical icon are the words "I want" and then there are other icons of common things the child wants like a picture of a glass of water, a picture of a toilet, a picture of a child taking a break, etc.  His biting and all that is a way of trying to communicate.

A Functional Behavioral Assessment must be conducted according to IDEA (federal law) when a child exhibits the behaviors you describe.  The FBS should be done by an expert in ABA.  For more information, check out http://www.shapingbehavior.com/images/Fu...

And thank you so much for not giving up on this child!  A wonderful little boy is in there under all those behaviors!

Answer 4

ever child is different. It all depends on how he is raised, but this is a crucial time. I may not be a professional, but i have had experience with children like this. Try a different approach, think out of the box, the best way would be make him talk. find out his problems. You would be surprised that a lot of rage can be caused due to surroundings.

Good luck with the kid..