Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello all,
My son, youngest of 4 has just been diagnosed with Autism. He also has possible ADHD which they will investigate when he is a little older. I’m struggling a bit with his behaviour at the moment, he has been very impulsive, hitting his brother, friends and teacher! His nursery have decided he can only go in for an hour a day and he is kept in a room with no other children. I’m trying everything to stop the hitting so he can return to his class, nothings working. Anyone been through or going through this?
Hi, I have a 4 year old son with autism, and I am no expert in autism (and I know nothing about ADHD), but I know from my own experience that when they hit themselves or others it is because they are stressed. Walking into nursery with children playing and running around for an autist is like having the volume and picture turned up x10. This becomes overwhelming, they cannot cope and they lash out because they cannot take the constant overbearing stimuli.
The reaction of shouting or grabbing the autist only makes matters worse, and increases the stimuli increasing the autist's desperation to get out of the room. And this comes to my next observation (and again I'm no expert) but I think it is possible that putting them son in room on his own my well calm him down, but make matters worse as after such overstimulation your son may be glad of the solitude. Hence it is possible you enter a cycle, if he lashes out, he will be rewarded with a quiet room on his own with the stimuli removed.
Definitely demand the Nursery get an ECHP in place, and it it were me I would introduce him to the nursery a little bit at a time, and before he lashes out take him to the quiet room, stay with him and play games with him and then go back (endplay the same game) so he becomes accustomed to the noise. However, that is just my own experience, every autist is different. You know your son better than anyone and that iswhythe ECHP issue important to truly understanding the problem.
Hope this is in someway helpful. We've been there, and I really feel for you. It is very very hard but you are not alone.
Hi, thank you for your reply and wise words. The nursery have an ECHP in place and he would normally be taken to a sensory room when they see him getting stressed. They have said he’s coping less and less in the nursery and as he’s impulsive they can’t trust him around the other children so the plan is to keep him on his own for the next month or so at least. I don’t want him to hurt any other children but I’m worried about the cycle he will get into if he’s on his own in a room and not mixing. He starts school in August I hope. He goes through stages of no hitting and almost playing with the other children but out of nowhere the hitting starts again. If only we could work out what triggers it!
Thank you, I will take a look at the link shortly, when the kids let me haha. I tried to Potty train my little one at the same age I did with his brothers and sister and it didn’t work at all and was stressing him out. I waited a bit until he was going through one of his good stages then tried again. He is obsessed with Thomas the tank engine so picked up a huge bag of second hand engines and let him choose one every time he used his potty. That with a thomas potty training sticker chart book off Amazon did the trick eventually! He took a lot longer to get the hang of it than his siblings and there were a lot more puddles on the floor!
I just found this, it maybe of help? It is a presentation about HFA and anxiety/aggression in the classroom, and a few basic tips on how to manage it. You may want to find and get in touch with the author as it may be a bit generic - Vanessa Oldham, Leader of Outreach and Inclusion, Freemantles School.
Hope it helps.
http://nebula.wsimg.com/d31a8f899d740f207ddc9da2449c025c?AccessKeyId=BC5ED04838275222DA64&disposition=0&alloworigin=1
You don't know anything about potty / loo training for autists do you?