What to do about behaviors

[Guest guest]

Texas is really behind when it comes to parent training. It was 35 years ago when my son was diagnosed by a school for autistic children, Judevine, in St. Louis. I was trained to look at behaviors and chart them. How frequent did the behavior happen, when? and the duration. You can take a stop watch and see how long the behavior happens and chart it. By doing this you can get a much better idea about what might lead up to the behavior and what is happening. Hand flapping might be for enjoyment, e.g. Just remember our kids do not understand the social things going around them. Maybe hand flapping to music might be as enjoyable to them as we might enjoy dancing to it which is more normal. What is normal? That is another question? Anyway, you might make your own chart and this might tell you more about a certain behavior and why it is happening. Does it always happen because of something that goes on right before it? The ABA people should be teaching you about charting a behavior. And, actually, if you do a good charting job it will make the ABA person’s job a lot easier. They need data. You can give it to them. Martha