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Autism and Tantrums

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Autism and Tantrums




Related Topics

Treating Autistic Children
Children with autism display the most irrational and emotionally challenging symptoms. Doctors and parents can use a variety of treatment methods to manage these uncontrollable behaviors

Parents Guide to Teaching Autistic Children
However, parents can cope with the challenge of raising an autistic child by knowing the right ways and through the support of care groups.


You are here: Home > Children with Special Needs > Autism and Tantrums

There is a fact about tantrums and it says that not all children display such behavior.

There are various factors of such anger outbursts and these include autism, ADHD, mental health conditions, behavioral development, environmentally contributed stress, temperament, developmental stage, age, and fatigue.

The parents' response to the temperament of the child may also aggravate the condition.

 

Reacting too strongly to stubborn behavior or readily giving in to the demand of the child is a big no-no when dealing the tantrums. Autism and tantrums are closely related. Aside from the fact that autism is a contributor to the behavior, there is definitely nothing wrong with autistic children displaying tantrums.

Despite this acceptable medical fact, parents and guardians often regard tantrums as a top problem in young autistic patients. Children may act irrationally usually with heightened fear, anxiety, panic, and rage.

These actuations also involve distracting manners, like pushing other children away, opposing contact with others, uncontrollable crying, and screaming. Although quietly unavoidable, these distracting behaviors are particularly common among autistic children.

Parents find it hard to prevent these disturbing actuations from happening. In fact, biting, pinching, and hitting are inconsolable, and may last for a long period. Panic, aggression, and rage will continue from childhood, through adolescence, and even until adulthood. Satisfaction or consolation that puts an end to these tantrums hardly ever take place.

The most effectual and ideal way to handle tantrum behaviors is to ignore the act. Parents must teach their children how to express and manage anger. Parents or guardians need to recognize the causes of the child's emotional instability. Never blame, reprimand, or even shout at the child. In autism, the best course to do is avoid menacing and malicious responses. There is always a reason behind every child's obstinate attitude. Be patient, explore, and be understanding about the challenges you are facing with your child's behavior. The key is to give, not to give in.

As much as possible, parents should mediate the behavior while the patient is young to avoid the frequent recurrence of these bad habits in the future. Autism demands open communication, not tolerance. It requires gentle pampering, but not sadistic approaches.

 

What Causes Disturbing Behaviors

Tantrums are very common among children. They start to occur when the child reaches fifteen months. However, these destructive behavior patterns intensify between 2 to 4 years. Children with no autism typically rage when they are anxious, when they anticipate something to occur in their favor, and it does not take place immediately.

They get angry when parents ask them to do something. Alternatively, they feel upset when they cannot accomplish a simple task, such as tying their shoelaces or buttoning their shirts.

 

Most people might regard autism as an abnormal condition, but young autistic patients, like ordinary children, are also prone to these frustration-triggering events.

To deeply understand how autism affects tantrums and vice versa, parents must need to look at how autistic patients act or respond to stimuli. Like most ordinary kids, children with autism also rely on rituals. They form these habits as they grow.

These rituals then become the building blocks of the autistic child's structural behavior or commonly as the structure. The structure is simply a method, a set of rules that define how the child acts upon, responds, and decides after a given stimulus. Like normal children, autistic kids also experience difficulty and intensity of the information they collect using their senses. However, a lack of learning ability hinders children with autism to react cognitively to their environment.

Overwhelming changes in the environment and incomprehensible stimuli cause disturbance in the structure of the child. He may even feel uneasy with the subtle changes that occur in his surroundings. Events, like waking up at atypical hours, going to school in a different way, going to school using the bus instead of the car, or a hidden favorite toy are push button activators of autistic tantrums. For a child with autism, the world becomes confusing when things are not in order anymore. The child has to decide between imposing his own structure and responding to the changes of his world. He thinks that he is right, but because he is confused, he ends up in rage, either to catch attention or simply to manipulate the situation.

Another likely cause of challenging autistic behaviors is the lack of communication between the parents and the patient. When there is an expected change in the environment of the child, the parents must explain to the child the purpose of the changes. Parents then must teach the child how to react accordingly and explain to them the consequences when the child does not act appropriately. On the other hand, the parents must also learn to respond to the message of the child through his tantrums. His tantrums may mean that the child is hungry, in need of diaper change, or wants to go to bed.

Recurrent Tantrums

A challenging behavior of a child becomes disturbing when it frequently occurs after the age of three. The behavior that comes with autism is no excuse here at all. The best way to prevent the recurrence of tantrums is to apply a time-out. Time-out refers to the removal of the child from the stimuli, allowing him the necessary time to quiet down, and thus, teaching him a lesson that tantrum is not a tolerable behavior.

The time-out approach may not work for all children. However, parents must take time to let their children learn. Interestingly, most children eventually learn ways in handling tough emotions that cause them temper tantrums. Over time, they will improve their skills in communication, learn independence, and be familiar with the advantages of possessing these skills. If the child still displays challenging behavior after four years, he definitely needs professional help in dealing with his anger. Unimproved behavior that starts or continues to show during the first years of school is also a sign of unknown issues. This may mean that the child has difficulties mingling with other school children.

The best time to talk to a specialist is when:

- Parents have serious issues about their child's tantrums

- Parents notice that their child continues to show temper tantrums after four year

- The child turns temper tantrums into brutal behavior

- Parents are afraid to hurt their child and do not know to manage their child's tantrums.

 

Challenging behavior patterns may also imply social, emotional, and medical problems, especially if the child is developing hurtful behavior. Hair pulling, scratching, biting, and kicking are no longer typical tantrums. Check for these other disturbing behavior patterns:

- Child breaks or throws things

- Child inflicts self-injury or bangs head uncontrollably

- Child's behavior recurrently lasting more than 15 minutes thrice a day

- Child does not improve temper tantrums at his fourth year

- Child intentionally hurts the people around him when his temper tantrums strike.

 

When these destructive behavior starts to develop, it is best that parents send their child for medical treatment. This is often the advisable option if you do not want to hurt your child or if you have difficulties managing your child's tantrums. Remember to seek medical treatment if:

- Your child has frequent and long-lasting tantrums

- Your child continues to display stubborn behavior after 4 years of age

- Your child resorts to violence or self-injury.

 

During these critical times, parents need both professional advice in managing tantrum episodes and direct involvement in the improvement of the behavior. The best thing that parents can do is make the environment more comfortable for the child. You should allow the child's structure to improve. Avoid disturbance when the child is busy with a task. In addition, allow your child to have his own space when necessary.

 

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Related Topics

- Temper Tantrums Children

- Treating autism children

- Parents Guide to Teaching Autistic Children

 

 

 

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