How can you stop a 7 year old from hitting? I am a teacher's aide and l have this student that hit others from

Question

September til now. The teachers and the 2 aides have tried everything from cutting lunch time to calling his parents, nothing have worked. He 's not afraid of consquences and is does not respond to any kind of authority. It's the end of the year now, and his hitting problems are getting worst.His hitting has escalated from hittnig students to hitting adults. I have to watch him at lunch and break his figths everyday,and he hits me everyday, l've tried reasoning w/him,giving him serious consequences, taking away his lunch/recess time and being firm-nothing have worked. He continued to spit,hit adults and kids. I am at my wit's end,45 minutes of lunch is a friggin long time to look after a child w/ very violent temper and behaviour.

I think l am giving up on him,jand just let him hit and go wild like an animal.

Answer 1

Drop him back to zero time with his peers and make him earn his way out of it.  Create a visual chart with the rules and maybe a red, yellow and green so that he can know where he is behaviorally without problems.  :)

Answer 2

Drag him away from the other kids and let him see what its liked to be hit.Beat the **** out of him.open up his little closed mind and let him see that there are sometimes dire consequences for his actions.Mom and dad are obviously **** ups if they dont have enough respect for you or the other kids in the class if they allow this behavoir to continue.I can absolutely guarentee you,if it was there kid being hit,mom and dad would want the world to stop for their little "angel"and do everything humanely possible to make it right.Kick his little ***,sound like he's long over due,good luck w/ Damien.(Child in the movie The Omen)

Answer 3

Is there a certain time or event that seems to start him off?

Has diet been checked as certain foods maybe triggering these outbursts. Junk foods are a real ripper for causing behavioural issues.

Is he on any medication, and is or has he had any behavioural modification programs set up for him, as this will help you manage him better.

Something has to be triggering his aggression, and as you say he has to learn not to hit anyone. I would look at what is happing prior to his out burst, such as something simple as a particular sound, a person, a smell (sensory overload) or even a subject that they don't understand could be a trigger, even being out of the normal routine can be a real issue for autistic people.

Try to learn the signs of his aggression building, which may help you direct and divert his attention earlier (once he is in full swing of a temper tantrum or aggressive out burst, nothing is going to get through to him), does he have a favourite toy or object he likes, if you can see he is looking anxious then give him the toy/object which may help in calming him, and then remove him from others until he is calm and happy again. Typical signs could be an increase in hand flapping or other repetitive behaviour or grunts/throat noises.

When he physically lashes out, remove him from the room and other students, and put him into a a room or anywhere where he has no access to nothing that can be broken or thrown, as you put him in there tell him why is in there and how long he will be in there for, and close the door and wait until the set time has finished. If he has calmed down encourage him to apologize to his victims, and that should include you and the teacher for disrupting the class.

Keep him isolated at play time to prevent  him lashing out at other children, and keep occupied with games etc. The isolation will not concern him as autistic children don't like interacting with others anyway, and letting him have time out from others at play time is good, especially if he has been in class with them all morning.

I am all for having children with disabilities put into main stream schooling, but their abilities need to be taken into consideration, including violent and aggressive behaviours. Violent and aggressive children is putting other children at risk, the teachers, and teachers aides and they have to learn how to behave appropriately before placed into mainstream schooling.

I was badly hurt by a child with autism (new client), had I had access to their clients profile, I may have been able to pick up his building anxiety and aggression well before he lashed out. So I now ask for a client profile so I can learn as much as possible about them, which may give me the heads up on them.

Some of the idea's suggested have been really good, and I can only hope that solution can be found for all concerned.

Answer 4

When he starts hitting you need to pull him away from the group and give him time to calm down and then talk to him.  He is probably doing it because someone is not understanding what he wants.  If you talk to him after he calms down and is able to tell you what he wants it will be a lot better.  You also need to explain to him that it hurts your feelings to see him hurt others, also explain to him that he won't let anyone hurt him, so you can't let him hurt anyone else.  If possible have the teacher talk to his parents and find out what is going on at home.  They are probably having the same problem and it you can work together it will be much better for everyone.  Maybe everyone can come up with a sign he can use when he is about to hit and needs some time to calm himself down.  I worked with some Special Ed kids last year and with one of them we came up with a sign that a child used to tell me he needs to talk a walk around the halls.  Hope this helps.

Answer 5

I can't believe that the school has let this go one for EIGHT months! Of course it got worse because he was able to practice over and over and apparently it's very effective.

In October there should have been a written request by teachers and parents for a functional behavior assessment, and a behavior management plan should have been created. Depending on the child, an independent plan should have been created. My daughter has autism, and she started hitting because it got her out of uncomfortable situations. Due to her disability she did NOT understand reasoning, and she did not respond to discipline, there was no connection between cause and effect. So that meant that the aide had to stop her from hitting before it happened. It was very intense, she was beside my daughter every minute she was at school, and she stepped in BEFORE my daughter got upset and coached her through more appropriate ways to tell people to stop, to leave her alone, that she was overwhelmed, that she was angry.

The teacher should be taking care of this, it's what all of her four years of education should have been setting her up for. It's not fair to expect you to come in and resolve behavioral issues.

Answer 6

expel him from the school

Answer 7

How frustrating!  But, unfortunately, letting him go wild really isn't an option...  He is a danger to others, probably isn't learning much, and certainly isn't allowing others to learn.  This is a bad situation all around.

Although the classroom teachers (and aides) are expected to handle most of the teaching and discipline in the classroom, when something simply isn't working, it is time to involve others...  

And having you go "one-on-one" with him really isn't a solution.   It is *wasting time*.  You are not trained to address this behavior, and in addition to driving you crazy, it is causing problems for everyone, *especially* the student.  He continues to get deeper in his dysfunctional rut, and fall further and further behind in all the skills that he is supposed to be learning.

So, you and your teacher should start involving other specialists who are trained to address behavior/psychological issues -- counselors, psychologists, the Special Ed. team.  

Start by documenting the behavior, and everything you've tried -- and how he responded.  This will be useful as you consult with others -- all the way up to assessment for placement in Alternative School or Special Ed.

We had a student somewhat like this in a school where I did my student teaching.  For a long time, the teacher bent over backwards trying to accommodate him. This did no good whatsoever.  What finally worked was sending him home for the day as soon as he demonstrated he could not be in the classroom.   After Mom had to leave work to pick him up several times, the behavior started to improve...

I hope some of this helps.  I understand your frustration, and you and your teacher owe it to yourselves and especially the student to keep on addressinng the problem until it is solved.

Good luck!

Answer 8

Try redirection and positive reenforcement.

If he does something good he gets something good like a sticker (can work with other stuff) but if he hits, spits, etc then one of the stickers gets taken away.

Try documenting the behaviour and see if it happens in response to a certain event, person, etc if so you can modify this or warn him it is going to happen.

You said that he doesn't seem to respond to circumstances maybe you are just going for the wrong ones.

Document his behaviour and see if there is anything he doesn't like- for instance being seperated from his peers or being sent out of the room by himself and you can then use that - you can at least threaten him with it - but you have to follow through a few times or it will become an empty threat.

You should also suggest at his next plan meating that he be assessed by a psychologist as they will be able to come up with a proper behaviour management plan.