AutismTantrums, Autism Anxiety, & Autism Panic Attacks

Because many children who are diagnosed with autism have difficulties communicating, they may resort to throwing tantrums or misbehaving as a way of getting their message across to others. The key to ending this misbehavior is to figure out what a child is trying to express. After this is determined, the bad behavior needs to be replaced with a better, more acceptable behavior that delivers the same message. The following are the steps towards making this happen:

The first step is to find out what your child is trying to communicate or accomplish through his or her behavior. This step varies greatly in difficulty. In some cases, it may take quite a bit of investigation to get to the root of the behavior. The best way to go about this search is to look for a pattern. Analyze very carefully what happened just before your child’s tantrum or misbehavior (whether it was something that was said or done). This event may have triggered the behavior. It is also important to figure out what eventually causes the child to stop this bad behavioral issue. In most cases, a child is usually throwing a fit for one of these three reasons:

(1)   To get out of having to doing something

(2)   To get your attention

(3)   To get something from somebody

Ten-year-old Marcus of Seattle, Washington, had a terrible habit of throwing his drinking cup across the classroom. Marcus would usually get agitated during afternoon playtime, and this frequently resulted in him throwing his cup across the room. This habit clearly needed to be stopped! Marcus’ teacher, Miss Rugal, did have experience in dealing with children who had autism, and though this habit was one of the more bizarre that she had encountered, she was familiar with similarly inexplicable misbehavior from her other students. She realized that the only way she could fix the situation was to analyze the situation closely and figure out what was triggering Marcus’ irritation.

Miss Rugal closely observed all the events that led up to Marcus’ upheaval, and through her watchful, attentive eyes, after a week’s investigation, she was able to uncover the triggering element. Miss Rugal realized that this bad behavior occurred just after Marcus had finished his daily glass of fruit punch; this is when he became agitated and tossed his cup around the classroom. To test this theory, Miss Rugal poured Marcus another glass of fruit punch after he finished his first, and the result was that he did not throw his cup.  Marcus simply wanted more fruit punch! However, he did not know how to ask for it appropriately. He was convinced that if he threw a big enough fit, he would get the fruit punch that he wanted.

Once you have figured out why your child is misbehaving, the next step is to develop a replacement behavior for the child to adopt. This replacement behavior will express the same message they were trying to communicate through their misbehavior. A child must be taught a word or phrase and get used to saying it, instead of resorting to poor behavior. The child may not adjust to using the word or phrase immediately, and it will probably need to be practiced constantly until he or she becomes comfortable using the word or phrase.

In the “Marcus the Cup Thrower” example, Miss Rugal used a technique with both gestures and words to show Marcus the appropriate way to request more punch. The day after Miss Rugal first discovered the reason for Marcus’s cup throwing, she placed herself in front of him as soon as he finished his first fruit punch. She took his empty cup, flipped it upside down (reinforcing its emptiness), and instructed him to say, “Empty.” She spent fifteen minutes in each of next few days explaining this concept to him whenever his cup was empty, and on the fourth day, he got the point and was able to say the word when his cup was empty. However, when applying this technique, it is important for a teacher or parent to reinforce the lesson for some time after the child has picked it up, so that they will not be tempted to go back to their old habits.

It is also important that you—parents or teachers—are strict in your behavioral teachings, and that you don’t accept even the smaller explosions or outbursts. Eliminating the smaller tantrums or misbehaviors may actually be an important step toward solving the larger issues with a child. Many children with autism tend to get extremely agitated and anxious when there is an unexpected change in schedule or routine, and this often leads to tantrums or other misbehavior. A way to avoid this is to get the child mentally prepared for the change in schedule by explaining to them what the change will be and when it will take place. This should prevent some of the anxiety that the child may have otherwise experienced as a result of the unexpected event.

Though punishment seems like the natural thing to do, parents and caretakers should actually avoid using punishment to try to stop the child’s misbehavior. Punishment may stop the child’s misbehavior in the short run, but this is only a temporary fix and will not prevent the unacceptable behavior in the long term. This is because punishment doesn’t teach a child how to express him or herself any differently, and, thus, the child will continue to use inappropriate behaviors to try to communicate his or her needs and wants.

[Koegel, Lynn Kern Ph.D. and Lazebnik, Claire. Overcoming Autism. New York: Penguin Books, 2004. pp. 75-82]