Re: Frustration and self injuring!

[Guest guest]

Dear Wanda,

To be honest, I see all of the interventions you have attempted as being likely

to reinforce the " frustration " behaviors you are trying to reduce. If you think

about it, the more frustrated the child has become the more pairing you are

doing, the less work he needs to do to get what he wants and you are spending

time doing fun and relaxing sensory motor activities with him instead of holding

him to important learning expectations.

You state that even when you do these types of programming changes, he still

chooses the inappropriate behavior once the work begins.

What I believe you need to understand that frustration is merely a physical

demonstration of motivation. The more motivated you are to have something the

more frustration behaviors you use when you are not able to receive it. In this

case, the child is looking for the best way to receive whatever it is that is

making him frustrated.

When he wants something that he cannot have, be it attention, an item, or escape

from your demands, he will use behaviors that his experience has shown him will

gain access to that thing. Usually, when children with autism get to school they

are expected to meet expectations that they have not had to meet at home. When

this happens the child begins to use behaviors that have worked successfully at

home to help him get what he wants.

The problem occurrs when the school staff, who cannot allow him to have whatever

he wants at school has no choice but to put his behavior on extinction. By this

I mean that these behaviors are no longer allowed to be followed by

reinforcement. Whenever extinction is used, a natural reaction to it is for the

child to start to increase the behavior or try more potent behavior to get that

need met. This is called extinction burst behavior.

Extinction works as a way to reduce inappropriate behavior only if you can plan

for the extinction burst and ensure that these extinction burst behaviors are

not successful in reinforcing the child in anyway. If the extinction burst

behaviors are successful, (hitting, scratching, biting, self-injury, etc.) these

behaviors will be reinforced and will be more likely to occur the next time he

is not capable of getting what he wants. (This is exactly what you have been

seeing occur over the past few weeks).

I see your problem being a combination of home and school. The home environment

needs to begin holding the child and teaching him to the same expectations as

the school so that he can gain the skills necessary to meet those expectations.

Additionally, the school needs to be trained how and when to best use extinction

and to be sure not to give in and reinforce the extinction burst behaviors that

are currently being taught to this child.

If I would be your consultant, the way I would address this problem is by trying

to identify what is causing these inappropriate behaviors to occur and to insist

on not allowing these " frustration " behaviors to meet with any form of

reinforcement when they occur. If he begins using behavior that is dangerous to

himself or others, I would plan to protect him or the others but do so in a way

that does not reinforce the use of those behaviors in the future. Then, when I

have exhausted the child's attempts at using these behaviors, I would be sure to

offer large amounts of reinforcement for the more appropriate behavior choices

the child eventually chooses to use instead (waiting, moving on to something

else, participating appropriately, using an appropriate request, etc.).

After doing this successfully enough to reduce or remove the behavior at home, I

would take the plan that I now know works with me to the school and help them to

implement something similar that has been modified for their environement as

well.

The best ways to use extinction as well as how to avoid the pitfalls involved

with its use are covered in extreme detail with many real-life examples in

Chapter 6 of my book Educate Toward Recovery: Turning the Tables on Autism. This

book has been almost 3 years in the making and is scheduled to be released on

Oct. 1st of this year. If you are interested in more information on how it can

be purchased, go to the follwoing link. I hope you find it helpful.

http://www.lulu.com/Knospe-ABA

Schramm, MA, BCBA

www.knospe-aba.de

[ ] Frustration and self injuring!

Hi there

I was wondering if anyone could help. One of my kids I work for,

since starting back at school 2 weeks ago has become so frustrated.

He started biting his teachers and therapists and in the classroom

throwing chairs and tables ( I don't go into school with him). It

has really affected sessions at home and so I reduced all demands

and working on a VR2-4 and of course upping all reinforcement.

However whenever he gets frustrated he starts to self-injure - press

chin against knee and squeeze his arms/scratch himself and moan.

Does anyone know of any way of preventing these behaviors or helping

him through this situation once they start? I have started to

squeeze his arms and legs and head before the session begins and

this generally has helped however 50% of the time the behaviors

still occur throughout the session.

Thanks so much

Ferguson

wanda_pringle@ hotmail.com

[Guest guest]

Dear Wanda,

To be honest, I see all of the interventions you have attempted as being likely

to reinforce the " frustration " behaviors you are trying to reduce. If you think

about it, the more frustrated the child has become the more pairing you are

doing, the less work he needs to do to get what he wants and you are spending

time doing fun and relaxing sensory motor activities with him instead of holding

him to important learning expectations.

You state that even when you do these types of programming changes, he still

chooses the inappropriate behavior once the work begins.

What I believe you need to understand that frustration is merely a physical

demonstration of motivation. The more motivated you are to have something the

more frustration behaviors you use when you are not able to receive it. In this

case, the child is looking for the best way to receive whatever it is that is

making him frustrated.

When he wants something that he cannot have, be it attention, an item, or escape

from your demands, he will use behaviors that his experience has shown him will

gain access to that thing. Usually, when children with autism get to school they

are expected to meet expectations that they have not had to meet at home. When

this happens the child begins to use behaviors that have worked successfully at

home to help him get what he wants.

The problem occurrs when the school staff, who cannot allow him to have whatever

he wants at school has no choice but to put his behavior on extinction. By this

I mean that these behaviors are no longer allowed to be followed by

reinforcement. Whenever extinction is used, a natural reaction to it is for the

child to start to increase the behavior or try more potent behavior to get that

need met. This is called extinction burst behavior.

Extinction works as a way to reduce inappropriate behavior only if you can plan

for the extinction burst and ensure that these extinction burst behaviors are

not successful in reinforcing the child in anyway. If the extinction burst

behaviors are successful, (hitting, scratching, biting, self-injury, etc.) these

behaviors will be reinforced and will be more likely to occur the next time he

is not capable of getting what he wants. (This is exactly what you have been

seeing occur over the past few weeks).

I see your problem being a combination of home and school. The home environment

needs to begin holding the child and teaching him to the same expectations as

the school so that he can gain the skills necessary to meet those expectations.

Additionally, the school needs to be trained how and when to best use extinction

and to be sure not to give in and reinforce the extinction burst behaviors that

are currently being taught to this child.

If I would be your consultant, the way I would address this problem is by trying

to identify what is causing these inappropriate behaviors to occur and to insist

on not allowing these " frustration " behaviors to meet with any form of

reinforcement when they occur. If he begins using behavior that is dangerous to

himself or others, I would plan to protect him or the others but do so in a way

that does not reinforce the use of those behaviors in the future. Then, when I

have exhausted the child's attempts at using these behaviors, I would be sure to

offer large amounts of reinforcement for the more appropriate behavior choices

the child eventually chooses to use instead (waiting, moving on to something

else, participating appropriately, using an appropriate request, etc.).

After doing this successfully enough to reduce or remove the behavior at home, I

would take the plan that I now know works with me to the school and help them to

implement something similar that has been modified for their environement as

well.

The best ways to use extinction as well as how to avoid the pitfalls involved

with its use are covered in extreme detail with many real-life examples in

Chapter 6 of my book Educate Toward Recovery: Turning the Tables on Autism. This

book has been almost 3 years in the making and is scheduled to be released on

Oct. 1st of this year. If you are interested in more information on how it can

be purchased, go to the follwoing link. I hope you find it helpful.

http://www.lulu.com/Knospe-ABA

Schramm, MA, BCBA

www.knospe-aba.de

[ ] Frustration and self injuring!

Hi there

I was wondering if anyone could help. One of my kids I work for,

since starting back at school 2 weeks ago has become so frustrated.

He started biting his teachers and therapists and in the classroom

throwing chairs and tables ( I don't go into school with him). It

has really affected sessions at home and so I reduced all demands

and working on a VR2-4 and of course upping all reinforcement.

However whenever he gets frustrated he starts to self-injure - press

chin against knee and squeeze his arms/scratch himself and moan.

Does anyone know of any way of preventing these behaviors or helping

him through this situation once they start? I have started to

squeeze his arms and legs and head before the session begins and

this generally has helped however 50% of the time the behaviors

still occur throughout the session.

Thanks so much

Ferguson

wanda_pringle@ hotmail.com

[Guest guest]

Wanda

I am only a parent but was wondering what placement the child is in in school:

full or partial inclusion or resource? The reason I ask is that I have known of

children who, when put into inclusion classes without modifications, and are

just expected to sit there, will often exhibit these type of behaviors. It's an

avoidance behavior to get out of the classroom. I think you could ask for a

full scale FBA from the school since it sounds as though he brought the behavior

from the school to the home if he didn't exhibit these behaviors before. Again,

just a parent who has known lots of parents and heard many similar stories

especially if the child is going into a transition, or advancing into upper

level elementary where the work sometimes gets very difficult (more abstract)

for our kids.

R.

[Guest guest]

Wanda

I am only a parent but was wondering what placement the child is in in school:

full or partial inclusion or resource? The reason I ask is that I have known of

children who, when put into inclusion classes without modifications, and are

just expected to sit there, will often exhibit these type of behaviors. It's an

avoidance behavior to get out of the classroom. I think you could ask for a

full scale FBA from the school since it sounds as though he brought the behavior

from the school to the home if he didn't exhibit these behaviors before. Again,

just a parent who has known lots of parents and heard many similar stories

especially if the child is going into a transition, or advancing into upper

level elementary where the work sometimes gets very difficult (more abstract)

for our kids.

R.