He started hitting!!!

Has something in his life changed recently? Right about the time he started hitting? He may just be frustrated and can not express this in words. In our family, any change sends us into a tailspin, as my son is not normally violent either. Sit down at night, after the kids are in bed, and think really hard about what you've been doing lately, or what might have changed in his little world, it may be something as easy as rearranging the bedroom furniture. You may surprise yourself. For us, every time my husband goes away (he's in the Army) my son gets very frustrated and acts out. He is not normally like this. It takes him a while to adjust, as we all know, adjustments are hard with autism.

Bear in mind that it could just be an environmental thing that will go away. Maybe he's about to go through a growth spurt and he's acting out because his joints are sore and he doesn't know why or what to do about it or something. Of course it could be a new thing you have to add to the "things we have to handle before it gets out of control" list. My son was aggressive. Ok, he still is, but not nearly as bad as he was 2 months ago. He's 6, and let me tell you when he went on a tear it was bad. I've had people approach me and offer me assistance getting away from that abusive boyfriend/husband because I had bruises on my face, arms, etc. They weren't from any significant other... they were from my son. Who was 4 at the time. I went through 2 years of really aggressive behavior before someone suggested medicating him. The medication was suggested for 2 reasons, aggression (obviously) and to help improve focus. They recommended either Ritalin or Risperidal. I opted for Ritalin because it's available in a patch (he won't take oral medications unless they're slipped in his drink, and these aren't the kind of medicines I want to do that with). The first 2 weeks, I saw an improvement in focus and aggression as long as the patch was on, but his attention span shortened. He also had a daily fit of aggression about 4 hours after the patch came off (which, incidentally, is when the medication apparently wears off). Then the fits ended and the attention span lengthened. Oh, he's had some fits of aggression since then, and to be honest they're sometimes worse than before the patch. But they're not daily. Maybe one a week, usually directed at me, and I can handle it. The down sides are that he's not going to sleep until around 11pm since the patch, and he doesn't eat much while the patch is on. Just nibbles. Once the patch comes off though, he eats like a horse.

Yes my six year old goes through this too. When she is around us, we say “nice hands” and keep repeating it until the behavior stops. What suprises me about your situation, the way the therapist and teachers are handling this. They know what they are suppose to do but not doing it. And since the consequence are not immediately followed by the bad behavior he thinks it is ok. I hope you had a chance to talk to the teacher and therapist about it and stress the importance of those forms. I always call the teacher if t hey forgot to send home a report for the day. I get daily report of whats happening school. It bugs me when they forget because I don’t know if there is anything I need to do for the day. Good luck

Hi, I have a degree in Psychology, and Applied Behavior science, and am currently getting my Masters in Early Childhood Special Education. Kudos to you for requesting ABC data (also known as a Functional Behavior Assessment) My guess would be since this is happening with his tutors, that he is doing it for either attention or escape (he doesn't want to do the tasks) Does hitting generalize to him? You NEED to fight for this to be done, because if you do not have the reason that hitting is maintained, you cannot effectively treat the problem. Please let me know if you have any questions about FBA's. I'd love to help you out! I'm currently assisting in a study involving aggressive behavior in a 4 year old girl with Smith-Magenis syndrome and we are in the preliminary stage of FBA.