Any behavior "golden rules"?
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Any behavior "golden rules"?
| Thu, 03-29-2007 - 1:54pm |
idaphne63
Edited 6/5/2007 9:41 pm ET by idaphne63
Edited 6/5/2007 9:41 pm ET by idaphne63
| Thu, 03-29-2007 - 1:54pm |
Every situation is different, of course, but I can tell you what usually works for Lily. She is 4.5 yrs and has PDD-NOS. If she is doing something that is not harmful to herself or others, then we do try to just ignore the behavior. That usually works, but sometimes she is just being a typical kid and wants to continue the annoying behavior just to get a reaction from her older sister. As far as behavior that is harmful, we take the positive-reinforcement approach. For example, lately she has been picking at a sore that she had on her wrist from a ant bite. It wasn't healing and we didn't want her to get an infection. She wouldn't leave a band-aid on it, even after we bought the cute ones that she wanted. So, we started a reward system. If she left the band-aid on for a certain amount of time, then we gave her a sticker. It's been about 4 days now and for the most part, she has earned her stickers. It seems like in Lily's case, positive reinforcement is much more effective than punishing her. We do have a time out chair for her when she is just continuing to get into trouble over and over. Her psychologist suggested that when we put her in time-out, that we should give her something to do while she is sitting so that she doesn't melt-down during time-out. He told us to trace the outline of her feet and tape the outline on the floor in front of her time-out chair and have her "match her feet" while she is sitting in time out. It has helped a lot with her melt-downs in time-out. Before we did the feet outline, she would pull off her clothes and throw them while she was in time-out or she would pinch or scratch herself. But, like I said, the time-out chair is usually reserved for issues that need to be dealt with immediately. HTH
Amy~Natalie & Lily's mom
I would see no problem in neutrally mentioning that you find ignoring a new behavior tends to be most effective for your ds. Worded in a way such as that is non-confrontational. It could be that she didn't realize it was a new behavior, etc. I have had therapists that do this kind of thing and I know I have made mistakes such as this with my students. I don't know them as well as mom so if they fill me in on some of that stuff I am cool with it.
As for my own kids, the behaviors that are ALWAYS addressed are those which are harmful. Other behaviors I would ignore the first few times as well to see if it goes away. And licking, I would likely not treat that behaviorally as much as sensory wise with different things for his mouth that are more socially appropriate (lollipop, a smoothie with a straw, etc.)
Renee
Hi Daphne,
I am a behavioural science technology student currently learning all about human behaviour and applied behavioural analysis, including the use of planned ignoring and extinction with novel behaviours. You mentioned that the psych. thought that DS would respond well to ignoring new behaviours, and reinforcing good behaviours. You were also right in pointing out that the therapist's mentioning of "yucky, don't put your hands in your mouth" would, in fact reinforce DS' behaviour, IF his behaviour was attention seeking. IF it is sensory, (which is always a considoration with autism/ppdnos/aspergers) ignoring the behaviour will not make it go away, and you need to find an equal behaviour which satisfies the sensory need that it is fulfilling (ie candies for the mouth, keep the hands busy with something).... back to business, if the behaviour is attention seeking the best way to deal with it is to say "hands on your lap please", as saying "yucky, don't put your hands in your mouth", may actually sound to a person with autism "put your hands in your mouth" (many autistic individuals only respond to the last part of what you say.) **SAY THE BEHAVIOUR THAT YOU WANT TO SEE, rather then saying the behaviour that you do not want to see, telling DS to put his hands in his lap and then reinforcing DS each time he has his hands in his lap (including times when he is not engaging in the hand-mouthing behaviour) will teach him that keeping his hands out of his mouth will be positively reinforced.
To answer your question "Is that generally the rule with new undesireable behaviors that you see --- to ignore them in the hopes that they stop?"-- there are generally four reasons why an individual may engage in a function of behaviour:
1. attention (you can ignore an undesireable behaviour if it is to seek attention, but remember, the individual is seeking attention because they feel like they are not getting enough)
2. escape (to escape from an undesired activity, event, place, etc... generally, this is when ignoring is best used)
3. tangible (obviously if a behaviour is occuring to recieve an object, you can manipulate the behaviour to be positive so that they may recieve the object... ignoring can work sometimes though)
4. sensory (ignoring sensory behaviours, as I mentioned above, WILL NOT work. At all! They will occur, and occur, and occur! This is when you need to get creative...)
As for worrying about stepping on the therapists toes, you could just say, "we have noticed that DS has been........ lately, we talked to the psychologist about it and she really recommended that we use ignoring with this behaviour, we have been saying 'hands on your lap' when DS does this and then praising him for times when he has his hands in his lap, I am telling all of the therapists about this new strategy, we are going to try and see what happens, but we all need to be on board." or something to that effect....
haha, sorry if this is long, its nice to be able to finally use this knowledge other then in theory in a paper! Let me know if this helps... :)
PS MOST behaviours that you see with autism are sensory related, as I am sure you probobly already know. Just a consideration for DS' hands-in-mouth behaviour.
Thanks for the replies, everyone.
Edited 6/5/2007 9:41 pm ET by idaphne63
Hello Daphne,
I could give you some advice on visual sensory issues. Sounds like DS is very visually hypo-sensitive! Definitely would work to use as a positive reinforcer for him. What exactly are you hoping to change about the visual behaviours?
-Alexandria
Edited 6/5/2007 9:42 pm ET by idaphne63