Challenging behaviors sound like a pretty broad term and can be disruptive to daily life. These include but are not limited to self-injury, aggression, property destruction, tantrums, noncompliance and repetitive behavior. The behavior is considered as challenging if it is harmful to the individual or others around them.
Root Cause of Challenging Behaviors
The root cause of most challenging behaviors can be classified into 3 categories: biological, social or initially biological later maintained by social consequences. Biological causes include anxiety or environmental sensory processing issues. Social causes relate to the desire for attention or desire for a certain object. Some behaviors can originate from an underlying biological cause associated with pain or discomfort but continue due to social consequences like gaining attention even after the pain has stopped. Though the causes may vary, challenging behaviors often occur due to difficulty in communicating and expressing their frustrations (Autism Research Institute, 2022).
Reasons for Challenging Behaviours
There are 4 reasons why a child may engage in challenging behaviors: access to something, escape from doing something they dislike, getting attention from others and self-stimulation where the behavior makes them feel good (LeafWIng Centre, 2022). It may be helpful to replace the behavior with a more appropriate skill.
Managing Challenging Behaviors
A replacement skill is an appropriate skill that maintains the same consequences as the challenging behavior. It serves the same function and gets the same needs met in a more socially acceptable way. Replacement skills are important in decreasing challenging behaviors (Autism Classroom Resources, 2020). Some examples of replacement skills are communication skills, coping skills and daily living skills.
Communication Skills
Teaching communication skills can help them to express their wants without resorting to challenging behaviors. The first step is to identify triggers and learn to request for what they want. Every individual is different thus the key is to effectively implement appropriate communication skills that serve the same purpose as the challenging behavior.
When introducing communication skills, it is also important to value a child’s request consistently otherwise the challenging behavior will be more prone to occurring as compared to the replacement behavior. After the child has developed trust in the effectiveness of the replacement behavior then it would be possible to prolong the duration and increase tolerance for waiting with the usage of helpful tools like timers or visuals.
Coping Skills
Coping skills help individuals manage uncomfortable or stressful situations. These could include mindfulness exercises, positive self-reinforcement phrases like “I can do it!” or listening to a favorite song during an unpleasant situation.
Daily Living Skills
Lastly, daily living skills: routines and self-care tasks can be challenging. When individuals have learnt to achieve these skills, it innately fuels more body autonomy and boosts confidence levels resulting in a decrease in challenging behaviors. Teaching these skills help to meet their needs without assistance (Autism Research Institute, 2022).
All in all, challenging behaviors can be difficult to manage and may be best viewed as skill deficits or communication difficulties. Given this perspective, it is crucial to build competencies and replace the challenging behavior with more appropriate skills.
Written by: Keisha
References
Autism Classroom Resources. (2020, March 9). What are replacement behaviors and what do we need to know to be effective? Retrieved from https://autismclassroomresources.com/what-are-replacement-behaviors-and-wha/
Autism Research Institute. (2022, January 14). Challenging behaviors and Autism. Retrieved from https://autism.org/treating-behavioral-issues/
LeafWing Center. (2022, January 10). Alternative behavior examples to decrease challenging behaviors. Retrieved from https://leafwingcenter.org/alternative-behavior-examples-decrease-challenging-behaviors/