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When behaviours are seen as challenging, teachers and other adults need to ask why – why are these behaviours happening? They might appear to arise out of the blue, but they will have a cause. It’s just that the cause is not obvious if we’re thinking about how a typically developing child might respond to events or environments. We need to get our heads round how autistic individuals respond to events and environments, or we will not be able to get to the root of it. Schools would benefit enormously from routinely using ABC charts or similar (for an example, go to https://www2.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/sites/default/files/folders/documents/childreneducationandfamilies/informationforchildcareproviders/goodpractice/sentoolkit/ABCchart.pdf) – these are ways of examining and recording the circumstances, environment and events prior to and following the behaviour, so that either triggers or reinforcers (inadvertent rewards) might be revealed or indicated. This then allows for modifications to be put in place to avoid or better manage future incidents. This does not have to be either expensive or too time consuming, especially when it reaps benefits in time and upset saved in the classroom dealing with what can be pretty disruptive behaviours, not to mention the distress it causes for the autistic child himself. Children with autism do not enjoy meltdowns. They do not have meltdowns because they want to disrupt or offend. They do not choose to have a meltdown. Meltdowns cause great distress for the child and can lead to the child feeling even worse about themselves than they already do. Meltdowns are usually the result of the child becoming too anxious, feeling too challenged, feeling swamped and unable to cope or being presented with something unbearable. The reasons for this are many and varied, which is why it is vital to know the individual child as well as the specific circumstances. Reasons include sudden changes of plan, confusion as to what is expected, misunderstanding of expectations or of what was said, others’ unpredictable behaviours, sensory overload, perceived or real injustices, being told to ‘hurry up’, not knowing what is expected and so on. The typical world of the child with autism (and many adults) is one of permanent anxiety where things are expected but not explained or prepared for because ‘they are obvious’. Not to the autistic individual.