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Autism/autism and behaviors

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Expert: - 5/4/2007


Question
I have a student who is autistic and has violent behaviors.  Can these behaviors be modified?  Where can I go to learn how to do this?  Who is a good resource on-line or otherwise.
Thanks!

Answer
Hi,

Do you know what causes these behaviours ? If yes, would it be possible to avoid such situations ?
Often, autistic people acting violently do so because they feel extremely stressed, and they may not be acting violently on purpose, but their nervous system is overloaded enough to produce these behaviours as some sort of involuntary reflex. In such situations the person may be literally out of (self-)control, at least, that's my personal experience. I've never been physically violent against another person but have had screeming and shouting fits in the past and autoagressive behaviours (like hitting my head or my legs), none of which was really on purpose.

So modifying these behaviours may be quite difficult (you can only modify a behaviour the person has control over I guess - I'm not a therapist, though).
Finding out what causes the violent behaviours would be a good thing. Are there any noises or lights bothering him (they may not bother you, but may drive him up the wall), like the constant humming of a fan or fluorescent lights in the room, is he teased by his classmates, is he bored etc.
If the person is able to communicate it might be possible to teach him a sign to make or a word to say if he is overwhelmed so he can be brought to a quiet room and be left alone for a while so he can calm down.

I have also read about certain meds used to treat aggressive behaviour in people with autism, but you or his parents should ask his doctor about that.

I have also done a web search for you but unfortunately nothing really interesting showed up.

Hope this helps a little.
C.

Autism

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*DISCLAIMER*

Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day. I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.

I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).

Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.

Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.

Experience


As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better

I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.

In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area (AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).

Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !

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