Head Banging

What do you do when your Autistic child
 is Head Banging during a Meltdown?

This is a scary and dangerous behavior that I as a parent

had no idea how to deal with. It was horrifying for me,

but it seemed as though it didn't bother him a bit.

I never could have imagined that one day my son would be

head banging and injuring himself every time he got upset.

Out of fear most parents do not respond to this in a

way to end this behavior for good, but only in the immediate

moments the tantrum is occurring.

Giving into these tantrums at an early age and not being

ready to modify this behavior makes daily life with

Autism a nightmare with no end insight.

My child was only a toddler but it seemed there

wasn't a surface that scared him, intimidated him or

made him rethink this Self Injurious Behavior.

Over and over again he would bang his head on the

floors, walls, furniture or even head butt us. We have

been lucky that he has not needed stitches or caused

any real problems but we knew early on this

was an unacceptable behavior.

This Characteristic Of Autism can be very dangerous

and scary to deal with, especially when they get

older and bigger.

Every time my son would do this I would run to him,

and bring with me any and everything he could ever

want to calm him down.

His favorite stuffed animal, his drink, and blanket, I was super

mom to him. He stubbed his toe mommy was going to cuddle him

for thirty minutes. He was no more original seeking this attention

then when my daughter would sit down in the middle of the stor

e and demand a toy she wanted. I have been tricked before by these

little people! with my daughter the ultimatum is embarrassment,

with my son it is a self injurious behavior. I as a parent can not

treat him any different then I would her, only communicate

to him differently.

After getting wise to my daughters black mailing me

with embarrassment in the stores trick I changed how I dealt with

her fit. I had no control over whether she was going to sit down

in the middle of the floor but I had a choice,

I could make her get up or let her sit there arguing

with me in front of everyone until I gave in to her.

My son acts a lot better at doctors offices now a days.

My leverage over him is his v tech inno tab! He loves his little

tablet and knows that I will take it away from him if he does

not knock it off. I give him the same amount of warnings

I would give my other children, three strikes,

its out of here.

If a teenager was acting out with attitude about

the long wait at a doctors office you wouldn't rush over

and give them a MP 3 player to sooth them, you would

take their MP3 player to make them behave. When I rush over

to cuddle my son with his stuffed animals and cradle him to

keep him from head banging I am creating a future want for this

same scenario to play out every time we go to the doctors office!

He was not always the quiet kid sitting there playing his

own electronic without bothering

anybody! It was a process that took time.

I started out teaching him he was supposed to sit in

the chair. He would do that for a few minutes but was

still crying and screaming so I gave him the V-tech Inno Tab.

Slowly he became calmer and less hyper out in public. I took the

attitude that I was done with the head banging and it was

going to be dealt with the same way I as a parent would

deal with whatever unwanted behaviors my other kids had!

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