As children grow and develop, they begin to develop social behaviors by observing and imitating the actions of others. Behaviors which foster social interaction are referred to as pro-social, whereas behaviors which lead to less favorable results and outbursts are referred to as anti-social.   Many low-functioning autistic children engage in very unusual and repetitive movements commonly referred to as stereotypical or self stimulating behaviors.

Autistic children's behaviors are triggered by internal biochemical responses.  Anxiety releases both chemical and hormonal responses which in turn
arouse the neorological system into an agitated state.  When too many stimuli
are taken in through their senses, the child responds with sudden loud outbursts in an attempt to block out any unpleasant sensations.

When recording the behaviors of a specific child for the purpose of assessment,
each  behavior must be described, along with occurrence and frequency.

PRO-SOCIAL BEHAVIORS

By 6 or 7 weeks of age, infants have begun to socially interact with adults by focusing on faces, making eye contact, smiling, laughing and cooing.  During the toddler stage,  children develop behaviors, skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for interaction with others. Sharing, cooperating, kindness and generosity towards others are also necessary  social skills for establishing and maintaining relationships.

Assistants who use positive discipline in a safe and caring environment, ensure that the child's self esteem is fostered at all times.  Behaviors such as initiating contact with others, helping, sharing toys, taking turns, and showing concern for others are all modelled by the caring assistant.  When  children engage in pro-social behaviors they should be immediately  rewarded with tangible or social reinforcers. When the adult labels the desired behavior, smiles, establishes eye contact, and physically gets down to the child's level, it further illustrates to the child that their actions are meaningful and worthwhile. Voice intonation and varied pitch should also be used by the assistant as additional cues. By increasing the amount of positive reinforcement for socially acceptable behaviors, less desired ones will soon deminish.  It is recommended that the assistant reinforce positive behaviors four times as often as they would for anti-social behaviors. When methods of positive discipline such as these are used, children learn to modify undesired behaviors through internal control rather than being punished for them.

Social Reinforcers

Hugs
Touching or Patting
Praising
Peer Approval
Smiling
Clapping
Nodding

Tangible Reinforcers

Child's favorite toy given during brief solitary play times
Small amounts of food or beverage
 
 

VERY GOOD !                                                           PERFECT

GOOD JOB                                                                THAT'S RIGHT

TERRIFIC!                                                                  BEAUTIFUL!

THAT'S THE RIGHT ANSWER                             GOOD FOR YOU!

THAT'S GREAT !                                                      WOW !

GOOD THINKING                                                  WONDERFUL

NOW  YOU'VE FIGURED IT OUT !                      MUCH BETTER

EXCELLENT WORK                                               FANTASTIC

THANK YOU FOR ________                                 ALL RIGHT !

I KNEW  YOU COULD DO IT !                              YOU  REMEMBERED !
 
 

ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIORS

The behaviors that many autistic children engage in on a daily basis are extremely disruptive to others. Maladaptive or socially unacceptable behaviors occur when individuals haven't learned to regulate their own behaviors in response to other people's actions. In order for children to adjust their behaviors, they must first understand cause and effect relations, briefly attend to others and understand simple commands.

When children do not possess the ability to effectively control their behaviors, anxiety increases often causing sudden and intense behavioral outbursts.  These continually distract others and become very difficult to deal with  in a regular  school setting.  A great deal of patience and consistency is required when dealing with these  behaviors.  By carefully observing the child over extended periods of time, the assistant is able to detect small non-verbal signs of stress, thereby sensing  the precise moment to intervene.

Subdued lighting and soft music appear to have calming effects on most autistic children.  Alternate activities such as brief walks, swinging, and listening to music help the child to refocus. During sitting activities, some children may be calmed by having their back gently rubbed or their shoulders messaged, while others prefer to sit slightly back from the large group. Soft toys or short lengths of knotted rope have been helpful in  reducing some children's desire to engage in inappropriate body touching. If anti-social behaviors do not harm or distress others, they may be selectively ignored.  Negative behaviors appear to decrease when more emphasis is placed on giving verbal praise for positive behaviors. At no time are threats, punishment, physical power, shame, sarcasm, and withholding love acceptable methods of discipline for young autistic children.  Autistic children, as with all young children will from time to time test the limits. When making a conscious decision to not comply with requests, they may shake their head in disapproval, make direct eye contact, or dart away giggling, stopping occasionally only to solicit attention from the adult. These behaviors may also be shaped into more appropriate forms of social interaction through the use of  modeling, consistency and firm redirection.  Structured learning environments must be provided, limits set, and adequate time allowed for daily routines, tasks and transitions.

The following are anti-social behaviors exhibited by one autistic child during the
course of a complete school year:

Lack of Attending

• Little acknowledgement or eye contact with others
• Extremes in energy levels from very passive to immediately becoming very loud and giggling uncontrollably
• Temper tantrums (threw self on floor, face down, banged head with fists, lunged repeatedly at assistant) lasting 10-30 minutes
• Dragged feet while walking and giggled uncontrollably
• Twisted ankles together while standing, then crumpled to the floor

Aggression towards other children

• Repeatedly lunged into other children's backs while standing in line
• Head butt other children
• Sat on top of children's faces while they were laying down
• Kicked children's feet and legs while standing near them

• Repeatedly reached up to cover assistant's mouth with hand
• Reached both hands up to pull at assistant's hair or face
• Reached up to assistant's breast,  and squeezed it while loudly vocalizing
• Repeatedly pinched assistant's forearms while giggling uncontrollably
• Lunged into assistant with entire body while closing eyes
• Repeatedly attempted to grab at assistant's inner thigh, legs, feet, arms and wrists
• Fell backwards into assistant while standing
• Flopped over on to assistant's lap while sitting on the floor
• Head butt assistant while loudly vocalizing
• Repeatedly attempted to step on assistant's feet during walks
• Squeezed assistant's fingers, both wrists or arms while loudly vocalizing behind clenched teeth
• Clenched fists, directed them toward assistant, huffed and peered  closely into her face then loudly vocalized
• Squeezed assistant tightly around middle using both arms, while huffing loudly behind  closed teeth
• Grasped assistant's arms, swung on them, then crumpled to the floor during walks

• Crawled away from tasks
• Slid down off chair and sat under table while smiling
• Repeatedly dropped toys on table, giggled uncontrollably
• Frowned when requested to complete task
• Repeatedly lay on back in hallways during walks or stopped tasks to do so
• Leaned back during activities, giggled uncontrollably
• Turned body away from individuals or tasks
• While attempting task on floor, stretched legs out to repeatedly kick assistant, established eye contact and giggled uncontrollably
• Crumpled and tore pages from books, giggled  uncontrollably
• During redirection, stood firmly with both feet on the floor, shaking head "No" several times, established eye contact, lunged at assistant and giggled uncontrollably

• Threw food several feet from table
• Pushed food on to floor from table, giggled uncontrollably
• Broke food into tiny bits, put in mouth for very brief time before spitting it out onto the table
• Used both hands at once to push food into mouth
• Spit out food/juice, giggled uncontrollably
• Threw full glass and bowl into garbage
• Forced out burps during snack, giggled uncontrollably
• Repeatedly grabbed food from other children, licked it and giggled uncontrollably
• Quickly licked each piece of food instead of eating it
• Giggled uncontrollably while putting head into bowl of food
• Darted to drinking fountain, fixated on sticking tongue out and giggled

• Repeatedly pulled genetials while sitting on toilet, giggled uncontrollably
• Immediately after completing toilet routine, repeatedly ran back into washroom, giggled uncontrollably
• Repeatedly attempted to walk out of washroom with pants around ankles
• While sitting on the toilet, reached down into it to play with water, then licked fingers immediately afterwards
• Licked hand towel with outstretched tongue during handwashing routine
• Repeatedly rubbed hand towel between legs during handwashing procedure, giggled uncontrollably

• Opened doors, then darted to far side of nearby rooms, loudly vocalizing and arm flapping
• Attempted to take off all clothes during outside play, snack times and solitary play times
• Repeatedly looked under couch and sink edges
• Pulled lockers opened during walks
• Crawled under, stood on or hid behind furnishings, giggled uncontrollably
• When playing with doll, repeatedly kissed it with outstretched tongue, giggled, pulled doll's eyelashes, poked it's eyes, swung it overhead, rubbed doll between legs, then quickly undressed it while smiling and giggling
• During water play, put entire head into soapy water, then attempted to drink it, giggled uncontrollably

Self stimulating behaviors interfere with attending to meaningful activities and slow down the learning process.  They are most prevelant when the autistic child is left alone for long periods of time, and are significantly reduced during task related activities. Many stereotypical behaviors appear as a series of interconnected behaviors taking place over several minutes.  It is impossible to eliminate all of these, however providing alternative activities may help to  shape them into more acceptable forms of social behavior. When setting up a daily schedule of activities and routines, brief periods of  time must be allotted for non-structured solitary play.

The following is a list of observed stereotypical behaviors from one low-functioning autistic child over a three year period.  Some behaviors almost disappeared over several months, then reappeared later in slightly different sequences.  Other behaviors such as darting, uncontrollable giggling and loud vocalizations took up a good portion of the child's day.

Examples of Stereotypical Behaviors:

Vocalizing

• Extremes in vocalizations and activity levels, going from very loud with handflapping and darting to immediately sitting with little or no facial expression
• Giggled uncontrollably immediately after additional adults had been present in the room

•  Stared intently at objects for several minutes (wide fixed eye gaze and animated smile)
• Stared at far corner of room for several minutes with fixed eye gaze
• Peered very intently into people's eyes, drinking glass or printed images while rocking back and forth and vocalizing
• During walks, stopped abruptly, and looked up at ceiling fans while vocalizing

• Repetitive quick abrupt handflapping using both hands at same time
• Fixated on waving opened hand (palm inwards) in front of one eye while rocking back/forth, vocalizing and wide fixed gaze
• Wide armflapping
• Repetitively turned wrists back/forth while sitting and vocalizing
• Fingerflicking (one or both hands) while rocking back/forth during tasks
• Grasped and twisted tips of fingers

• While walking beside the assistant stopped and spun around her in a complete circle
• Fixated on spinning or rolling objects, handflapping and loudly vocalizing
• While attempting task suddenly stood up, spun in one complete circle by chair, hopping on the spot, flapping arms, giggled, with fixed wide eye gaze then sat down to continue task

• While standing rocked back/forth or side/side with rigid arm and leg movements
• Repeatedly bounced up and down while sitting on bended knees
• While walking, spun around 3 times with fixed eye gaze, then stopped abruptly
• Repeatedly darted across rooms loudly vocalizing, then stopped abruptly to touch top of nearby objects
• Repeatedly hopped up and down while staring straight ahead (fixed eye gaze)
• Rocked from side to side while sitting
• Lunged and jerked with wide strides during walks, arm flapped
• Repetitively lay on back, arching upwards, crawled backwards on all fours, then lay still and hid face in nearby furnishings for several minutes

• Peered closely at objects and felt them for extended periods of time
• Fixated on pulling or chewing one particular area of clothing or blankets
• Stopped play to lick small pebbles, pinecones, playground equipment snow, assistant's arms, face, shoes, flooring, corners of walls, books, small toys, blankets or towels
• Stopped to sniff certain edges of tables, shelves or chairs
• Fixated on licking palms of his outstretched tongue
• Fixated on feeling tips or sides of fingers using other thumb and index finger from other hand
• Repetitively rubbed snack under nose, then across back of closed hand
• Repetitively placed small items on top of closed lips, rubbing them back and forth
• Stuck tongue out, grasped tip holding it, then felt  under and around sides of tongue with other hand

• Layed on floor in somersault fashion, then suddenly sat up and began to bang forehead with closed fists
• Fixated on banging side of head with closed fists, armflapping
• Fixated on banging knuckle on earlobe, cryed , then giggled uncontrollably
• Fixated on putting fingers in one side of opened mouth, then repeatedly licked them with outstretched tongue
• Masturbated while smiling and softly vocalizing, then sniffed and licked hands immediately afterwards
• Fixated on scratching legs, feet and arms during activities
• While walking, squatted and waddled while intentely scratching back of seat
• Continually huffed behind clenched teeth
• Ground teeth while rocking from side to side

Many of the anti-social and stereotypical behaviors engaged in by the autistic
child impede learning, therefore, adults must make every effort to shape these behaviors into other socially accepted forms of  behavior.

There are currently two theories currently used in behavioral management:
 the developmental theory of learning and the behavioral approach.

Developmental theories of learning emphasize that learning is achieved through
a series of stages.  Competence within a given stage must be achieved before the
individual progresses to a higher level.  The adult knows what to expect
of children within different stages of social, physical, intellectual, creative and emotional development, then guides them towards greater competence
within their current levels of functioning.  Charts of typical development can
be found in Early Childhood Development textbooks or through local health agencies.

Behavioral theorists believe that all behaviors are learned through gradually
responding to the environment.  When adults change the way they respond to
the child's behaviors, the child will learn to gradually modify them.  Behaviorists
are primarily  concerned with the behavior, and what happened immediately before or after it (antecedent, behavior, consequence).  Applied behavioral modification techniques focus on achieving measurable changes in observable behaviors carried out through planned systematic approaches.  Reinforcers are used for desired behaviors and withheld when inappropriate behaviors are engaged in.  Many behavioral management consultants are training assistants and parents in carrying out discrete trial training using the principles of the Lovaas method. The emphasis is on intense 1:1 trials within a structured setting with minimal distractions.  Once the behaviors are learned in a specific teaching site, they must then be transferred into more natural social settings in order for the child to be able to generalize their behaviors from one setting to another.

When looking at skill levels of non-verbal autistic children, it can be noted that all areas of development have not progressed at the same rate. When establishing behavioral intervention programs for autistic children, differences in social and intellectual levels must be taken into consideration and appropriate adjustments made.

For many years,  programs for autistic children were developed using only one of theories.  Greater success may now be achieved by developing programs using combined information, techniques and  methods from both the developmental
and behavioral theories.

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