Thursday, April 20, 2006
Behaviours
My second son was two and a half when I returned to ND.
I had to take a job in Bismarck which meant that I had to leave for half a week.
About a month into my new job, I noticed that he had picked up a new behaviour.
He would bang his head on the wall or floor when he became agitated.
My husband would come running and tell him to cut it out and give him something to pacify him.
After watching this happen a few times, I asked my husband why he did that.
He said that he didn't want him damaging his head.
As per usual on my days off, my husband took that as his time out and would go out for several hours at a time.
So, I decided that maybe John's behaviour wasn't a symptom of his Autism.
Maybe it was just a tool he used to get his own way.
I let him bang his head.
When I walked past him while he was doing this, he kind of looked at me as if he expected me to do or say something about it.
I just ignored him.
This caused him to bang his head even harder resulting in him finally bursting into tears.
I guess it hurt.
Once he had finished banging, I asked him what he wanted.
And he indicated to me the object of his desire.
Which I provided him with.
The next time he did it, I did the same thing.
It didn't take him too long to figure out that showing me what he wanted was more productive than banging and it hurt a lot less too.
The next time I went back to work, it started all over again.
When I came home, there he was banging his head.
It took me something like four to six weeks to educate my husband. He just didn't get it.
The only good thing that happened with the head banging behaviours was that my eldest son, who is mute, was heard to say, quite clearly one day "John, don't bang your head, stupid"
I had to take a job in Bismarck which meant that I had to leave for half a week.
About a month into my new job, I noticed that he had picked up a new behaviour.
He would bang his head on the wall or floor when he became agitated.
My husband would come running and tell him to cut it out and give him something to pacify him.
After watching this happen a few times, I asked my husband why he did that.
He said that he didn't want him damaging his head.
As per usual on my days off, my husband took that as his time out and would go out for several hours at a time.
So, I decided that maybe John's behaviour wasn't a symptom of his Autism.
Maybe it was just a tool he used to get his own way.
I let him bang his head.
When I walked past him while he was doing this, he kind of looked at me as if he expected me to do or say something about it.
I just ignored him.
This caused him to bang his head even harder resulting in him finally bursting into tears.
I guess it hurt.
Once he had finished banging, I asked him what he wanted.
And he indicated to me the object of his desire.
Which I provided him with.
The next time he did it, I did the same thing.
It didn't take him too long to figure out that showing me what he wanted was more productive than banging and it hurt a lot less too.
The next time I went back to work, it started all over again.
When I came home, there he was banging his head.
It took me something like four to six weeks to educate my husband. He just didn't get it.
The only good thing that happened with the head banging behaviours was that my eldest son, who is mute, was heard to say, quite clearly one day "John, don't bang your head, stupid"
# posted by donna mason @ 4:45 AM 
