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Negative Behavior in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Negative behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) serve four main functions: avoidance, self-stimulatory behavior, requests/expressing needs, and attention-seeking. For each function, the document recommends not rewarding negative behaviors and instead praising positive behaviors, ensuring tasks are completed, stopping self-stimulatory behaviors and redirecting the child, teaching alternative communication methods, and only giving attention to positive behaviors. With consistency, children will learn more positive ways to get their needs met and desires fulfilled.

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Vasile Pitel
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49 views2 pages

Negative Behavior in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Negative behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) serve four main functions: avoidance, self-stimulatory behavior, requests/expressing needs, and attention-seeking. For each function, the document recommends not rewarding negative behaviors and instead praising positive behaviors, ensuring tasks are completed, stopping self-stimulatory behaviors and redirecting the child, teaching alternative communication methods, and only giving attention to positive behaviors. With consistency, children will learn more positive ways to get their needs met and desires fulfilled.

Uploaded by

Vasile Pitel
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
Download as pdf or txt
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Negative behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Explanations and solutions


by Vasile Pitel

Stimulus-reaction. This is the shortest and the clearest definition of the behavior. This helps us
to understand very well how this process takes place. The stimulus (impetus, trigger) can be any
detail from the environment or a necessity of the body which provokes us to have a reaction. We
can react both positively or negatively. If it is cold, we shiver; if we are pricked, we flinch; if we
are hit, we cry or we hit back, etc.
We name a behavior to be positive or negative depending on the intention, action and result.
Negative behaviors also have some functions. When talking about children with ASD (autism
spectrum disorder), we can enumerate four functions:

1. Avoidance
We are all often put in the situation of doing some things that we don’t like. Yet, we are aware of
this situation and we conform to it. For instance: we wash the dishes even if we don’t like it. We
do it knowing that it is for our good. But many times, a child with autism spectrum disorder won’t
see the meaning in the actions that we do. If we ask him/her to do the same thing, this will
puzzle him/her. He/she shall refuse to do something which – from his/her point of view is
pointless, or is distasteful. And if we do insist, the child could have various negative behaviors,
like: to cry, to run away, to yell, to hit, and to simulate illness. Thus, the child will try to avoid the
execution of duties that he/she receives. An example for comparison would be the case of
typical children who simulate illness because they don’t want to go to school. And this is a well-
known situation for many parents.
How should we react?
When the child succeeds to avoid an activity, he/she will definitely exercise these negative
behaviors more and more often in order to avoid the execution of similar activities. If we would
insist that the child to execute the instructions he/she received, not taking into consideration
his/her behavior, the child will understand that such behaviors are not a solution. He/she will
understand that the execution of duties is inevitable and he/she will conform to this. Besides, if
the child will be praised for the correct execution/performance of the tasks, this child will oppose
less resistance in the future.

2. Self-Stimulatory Behavior
Sometimes, children with autism spectrum behavior can be seen spinning, waving their hands,
putting objects in their mouths, playing with saliva, hitting themselves, as well as other similar
behaviors. Children with ASD have these behaviors because they find pleasure in them.
Sometimes, a simple game with the grains of sand could provoke to this child an enormous
pleasure. He/she is so absorbed in this activity that this child won’t react to other.
How should we react?
When we can see that a child has the above mentioned behaviors, we shall stop him/her on the
spot. Then, we shall explain him/her that this is not permitted and we shall involve him/her into
another activity. We can recommend him/her to draw, to play with the toys under our
supervision, or to play with other children. It is compulsory that the child to be supervised and to
not return to that self-stimulatory behavior.
3. The request / the exposing of a behavior
When the child doesn’t yet speak, he/she cannot express their needs. If the children want a toy,
or they are hungry, or have a headache and they cannot express all these things so that we
could understand them, they will become frustrated, will make hysterical crises, will cry, and will
reverse the things around.
How should we react?
If the parents will have the luck to find a good therapist, the situation will get better. Because, in
such cases, the child is being taught how to express his/her needs correctly. If the child cannot
speak, he/she is being taught to indicate with his/her finger what he/she wants or flashcards are
used. And if the child can speak, he/she is taught to formulate his/her request correctly.

4. Attention
Children always demand attention. In order to obtain it, they can make hysterical crises,
grimaces, they can simulate illness, and they want to be held in arms, etc. In the great majority
of cases, the children obtain what they want. In these situations, the parents, the educators, the
teachers become spectators who, praising the children’s prank or reproaching them for the
tomfooleries they have done, they do offer the children the attention they wanted to.
How should we react?
In this situation, too, the basic condition is that the child to not receive what he/she wants
through expressing a negative behavior. When the child will understand that all his/her attempts
won’t give results and that he/she doesn’t succeed to manipulate the people around them, the
child will stop doing these things, at least through these methods. Praise them much and offer
them your attention every time when they are doing something positive: when they are drawing,
when they are cleaning the house, when they are playing calm. This will make them to
understand that attention can be obtained by expressing positive behaviors.

Source:
‘‘Comportamentele negative la copii cu autism. Explicaţii şi soluţii”
(Negative behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Explanations and solutions)
http://vasilepitel.md/comportamentele-negative-la-copiii-cu-autism-explicatii-si-solutii/

Translated by Simona Pop

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