BEHAVIOUR - A MODE OF COMMUNICATION

              
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Believe that all things are possible

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Most of the behaviors children with Autism exhibit are a child’s response to a disturbance in his internal or external environment. Consider that a child’s behavior is his/her means of expressing his emotional feelings of need or discomfort. Trying to control or negative response on a behavior often makes things worse and it tends to increase in nature. Always as a parent /therapist make sure you identify or resolve the stimulus or trigger factor. If the stimulus (factor that triggered the behavior) is not addressed, the behavior can escalate or new intense behavior can take place. Give it a try to understand that the exhibit behavior is a mode of communication. Let us analyze the reasons for escalation of undesired behavior.

ü  Identify the behavior pattern: this step need to answer couple of WH questions like when the behavior is happening( I mean it is related to calendar time, days etc), where it is happening( the location or place of exhibition) and with whom the behavior taken place etc

ü  Changes taken place in the recent past: changes which are happened in the child’s environment has considerably affected child’s mental health or triggered emotional issues. For ex; moving to a new residence, child’s favorite TV program has stopped, he lost his favorite toy, his care taker has been changed in the classroom.

ü  Changes in the sensory environment: new arrangements in and around him (school, house), basically it talks about infrastructure. For ex; new lights arrangement, changing the door bell, changing ring tone of the phone, rearrangement of furniture.

ü  Developmental spurt: adolescence plays a major role influencing behaviors and there are sudden changes in child’s personality and the way he interacts or responds to environment. We can clearly make note of aggression frustration and increased tantrums in children with autism. Increased challenges and the fear of facing these issues shapes up in to an undesirable behavior.

ü  Illness: if you find any sudden changes in your child’s behavior give a great notice to his health, sometimes pain and discomfort in the body influences behavior. Child lacks receptive vocabulary to explain the health issues instead he show it as a form of behavior.

ü  Attention seeking: top it of some of the behaviors exhibited by the child is purely to seek attention from people.

Measures to be taken to address these issues:

J Always understand behavior is a form of communication

J Talk to him about alternative ways of showing his needs. For ex; if he is not happy with the dinner choice instead of screaming the child can say it as I would like to include cookies in the provided menu

J Extinction or total ignoring works best in greatly reducing the attention seeking behaviors

J Relaxation techniques helps your child in reducing anxiety and calms him in a great extent, one such relaxation technique is Jacobson’s progressive muscular relaxation. It works best in some children with ASD and all it needs is practice, practice only practice

J Do frequent health checkups for your child and educate him to identify and inform you about his aches and pains. Give him visual cards to indicate his type of discomfort or pain

J as a parent you need to calm down and be positive when you responding to these behaviors, all it means is be patient and give time while your child working on deescalating the negative behaviors

J Prepare your child for adolescence in advance; it will help him to adjust with the changes happening in him. Social stories is a great resource here

J Prepare your child for transitions (changes) well in advance, helps him in better adjustment. This should takes care of sensory issues as well

Your child’s behaviors are an opportunity to learn or get to know more about him is n’t it amazing. Count on your trust and use the strength of your relationship with him to make things best for him. All it needs is belief yes the magical word belief.