I Wish My Child Would Stop Doing That!

How to Respond to Undesirable Behaviors

A Review of Positive Parenting Practices for Young Children with Autism by the LEAP Outreach Project (2003)

Like most parents of a child with autism or related disability, you probably find yourself asking, "Why does my child do that?" on a continual basis. Think about something your child does that you don't like...Can you remember the very first time it happened? Chances are you can't. There are many reasons why a child initiates a particular behavior. Children are active learners, constantly developing through play, exploration and interaction with others. In the process, they try a lot of things including good and not-so-good behaviors. Whether it's by frustration, accident, play, exploration or communication we probably don't consider a particular behavior a problem until it begins to occur again and again. Today we will take a look into ways to respond to these undesirable behaviors.

Typical behaviors that parents are usually concerned about:

• A behavior that is dangerous or may result in the child hurting themselves or others.
• A behavior that may result in objects, toys, furniture, or other materials being damaged or destroyed.
• A behavior that interferes with the child's or another person's learning. 
• A behavior that is annoying or disruptive to the parent or other people.

Step One: Find out what is reinforcing the behavior

Often times it is not a simple task, but it's important to try to figure out what is reinforcing your child's behavior. Once you determine this, you will be able to decide how to respond accordingly in the future when the behavior is exhibited. Using an ABC chart is very helpful here.

Typical Behavior Reinforcers:

• Attention
• Receiving a reward
• Getting out of something unpleasant or escaping from a task
• Self-reinforcing

Step Two: Reinforce to increase desired behavior

"For every behavior you would like your child to do less often, there is a desired behavior to take its place[...]Whenever you identify a behavior you would like your child to do less often, think about what you can begin to reward to teach that will take its place. Sometimes the only plan for changing a behavior you would like to decrease is to teach your child how to perform a skill or communicate a need," (The LEAP Outreach Project, 2003).

• Identify an alternative behavior to replace the undesired one
• Teach or reinforce the alternative behavior
• Be aware of the environment and brainstorm ways in which you may manipulate it so to prevent the behavior from happening

Step Three: Respond to undesirable behaviors

Simply replacing and reinforcing a desired behavior may not completely rid the undesired behavior. These three strategies will allow you to respond to undesirable behaviors in a manner that has proven to produce results.

• Interrupt your child's undesirable behavior
• Redirect your child to do the desired (replaced) behavior
• Praise (reinforce) your child for doing (or even attempting) the preferred behavior

Step Four: Explore alternative methods

An applied behavioral strategy used to reduce behaviors that have been previously rewarded with attention is called extinction. This method involves the parent completely ignoring the child when the behavior occurs. Simply put, "when your child's behavior has been rewarded with attention in the past and you stop giving the attention, the behavior will decrease," (The LEAP Outreach Project, 2003).

• Only ignore behaviors that have been reinforced with attention
• Be consistent
• Ignoring a behavior will only work if you are in control of everything that has been reinforcing that particular behavior
• Do not ignore behaviors if someone or something may get hurt
• When you first begin the extinction process, your child may try harder (pull out all the stops) to get your attention and do the behavior more often (this is referred to as an extinction burst)
• Always reward desired behaviors

Another method for decreasing undesirable behaviors is to take away a desired object or privilege.

• Only take away desired objects or privileges for behaviors that occur occasionally
• The desired object or privilege you take away should be reasonable and closely related to your child's undesirable behavior
• Taking away the object or privilege should occur immediately after the undesirable behavior
• Remember that some children appear to be misbehaving simply because they do not know how to appropriately play, in such a case taking away a desired object or privilege would not work
• Again, always reinforce the desired behavior you would rather have your child do

Summary

• Children continue undesirable behaviors because they are in some way rewarding
• Reinforcers which cause undesirable behaviors to continue include:
• Attention and rewards
• Escape from a task
• Self reinforcing activity
• Identifying the reinforcer that follows the undesirable behavior can help us decide what strategies to use
• Strategies for reducing undesirable behavior include:
• Interruption and redirection
• Ignoring
• Taking away a reinforcer
• Always remember to reinforce desired behaviors when you are using any strategies to decrease unwanted behavior

Until next time, BLOSSOM!

Lauren Thome, M.A.