Grandmother worried about self harming!

This might reassure you:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6926823/Smacked-children-more-successful-later-in-life-study-finds.html

I think as with all things there needs to be balance.  When it's taken too far and tips over into abusive behaviour obviously that's wrong and will do nothing positive for the child.

I also read a psychological article that up until adolescence, smacking (within limits) was not psychologically harmful to children, but older than that it became a different matter.

With an autistic child, it may be harder to judge what the child could by psychologically negatively affected by, and perhaps more caution would be advised.  Social stories may work better to explain why things are wrong in a graphic way.

Does your child understand the reason for the smack at the time?  If it's not explained then she might not make the connection in her brain and this could be harmful psychologically.

I don't think you need to be concerned about self-harm, otherwise the vast majority of children would be self-harming as most have had a smack at some point.  I remember working once in a job where the only girl who hadn't been smacked as a child was the most spoiled brat you can imagine, whereas the other girls were not like that.

It's a subject that tends to provoke high feelings, as there are some that think done appropriately it's not harmful (and even desirable/beneficial), and others that go to the very extreme that say any smack is abuse and totally wrong.  In the wild, a lioness/lion will cuff the cubs when they are getting too boisterous, nature has a lot to teach and a supported and loved child, that knows they are supported and loved, who is taught right from wrong and gets the odd smack when they have gone too far is very unlikely to be damaged in any way.

This might reassure you:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6926823/Smacked-children-more-successful-later-in-life-study-finds.html

I think as with all things there needs to be balance.  When it's taken too far and tips over into abusive behaviour obviously that's wrong and will do nothing positive for the child.

I also read a psychological article that up until adolescence, smacking (within limits) was not psychologically harmful to children, but older than that it became a different matter.

With an autistic child, it may be harder to judge what the child could by psychologically negatively affected by, and perhaps more caution would be advised.  Social stories may work better to explain why things are wrong in a graphic way.

Does your child understand the reason for the smack at the time?  If it's not explained then she might not make the connection in her brain and this could be harmful psychologically.

I don't think you need to be concerned about self-harm, otherwise the vast majority of children would be self-harming as most have had a smack at some point.  I remember working once in a job where the only girl who hadn't been smacked as a child was the most spoiled brat you can imagine, whereas the other girls were not like that.

It's a subject that tends to provoke high feelings, as there are some that think done appropriately it's not harmful (and even desirable/beneficial), and others that go to the very extreme that say any smack is abuse and totally wrong.  In the wild, a lioness/lion will cuff the cubs when they are getting too boisterous, nature has a lot to teach and a supported and loved child, that knows they are supported and loved, who is taught right from wrong and gets the odd smack when they have gone too far is very unlikely to be damaged in any way.