Managing aggression - help!

My 6 1/2 year old with HFA is having a lot of tantrums when things don't go the way he wants or when he cannot have his own way. To an extent he's always done this but he seems to be going through a particularly bad patch and we haven't been able to work out why. We are trying various things to manage this e.g. working on him recognising his feelings and trying to teach him what to do when he starts to feel angry etc. (see post on other thread).

Because he is so violent while he is having a tantrum, (attacking myself, his Dad and his siblings) we take him to his room until he has calmed down. However for 10 mins or so he throws, rips and breaks things and if anyone goes in to try to stop him he physically attacks them.I don't like to just let him do this because he could injure himself. Also he shares the room with his brother and will often target his things. Our house is quite small so there is nowhere else he could go. I have tried the garden but he throws things at the windows!

I have told his brother I will replace anything he breaks and am thinking of going into the room armed with a large cushion to protect myself (!) while I keep an eye on him until he calms down! After a few minutes it's over and he's back to being his normal lovable self.

Please can someone give me some advice on how to handle this?

Parents
  • Thanks for your replies.

    I have looked at your blog Zoe and it is really interesting. I read that you don't think 'social scripts' work. Are these the same as social stories? These have been recommended to us in the past by speech therapists but we've had mixed results with them. I've ordered the 123 Magic as it seems straightforward to apply and the no talk, no emotion approach will be ideal. We can use it with all 3 children too so it will help with the problem of 'fairness'. Also its very easy to read and humourous!

    I am keeping a diary at the moment to try and work out if there are any particular patterns or triggers to the outbursts. Also I will definitely try the phonebook idea!

Reply
  • Thanks for your replies.

    I have looked at your blog Zoe and it is really interesting. I read that you don't think 'social scripts' work. Are these the same as social stories? These have been recommended to us in the past by speech therapists but we've had mixed results with them. I've ordered the 123 Magic as it seems straightforward to apply and the no talk, no emotion approach will be ideal. We can use it with all 3 children too so it will help with the problem of 'fairness'. Also its very easy to read and humourous!

    I am keeping a diary at the moment to try and work out if there are any particular patterns or triggers to the outbursts. Also I will definitely try the phonebook idea!

Children
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