Autism Treatment Center of America Forum

[stickywicket]

Hello all! I am an experienced volunteer currently living with a beautiful London Son-Rise family! Their amazing boy is 6 years old and we have seen massive changes in him since coming back from the Intensive in October. This family are finding their feet with the program and have made massive lifestyle changes in order to implement it
Outside the room, this sweet boy enjoys his family's and my company however he has started to hit and kick me a lot in the presence of his parents, I am showing a consistent response however they are giving this a MASSIVE reaction!!! I have mentioned to the parents that this is what he's looking for but to no avail, and I'm covered in cuts and bruises at the moment Any suggestions?
xx

[KimKorpady]

Dear Stickywicket,
How wonderful that you are lovingly dedicating so much of your time and focus to this family and their little boy!! From what you have shared in your post on our message board it sounds like the first thing that would benefit this program, yourself, the little boy, and his family would be to talk about this and ways in which each of you would like to move forward in this area. I would suggest talking about this with them from the view of seeking to understand why they are reacting the way they are, and then from there collaborating as a group in ways which you all can stay consistent in your reactions. Share with them what you have seen to be effective and also too, brainstorm together some ideas that you can all work on to keep consistency in your reactions. Here are some links which may help:

If your child is being aggressive click on the link below which will take to you a blog about the common reasons why a child might be aggressive.
http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/blog/2009/10/intense-energy.php

Then click on this other link that will take you to a webinar on how the Son-Rise Program helps children who have challenging behavior.
http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/media:video,22,0

Consider thinking about it this way: You are a part of this program and a huge part of volunteering in a program is constantly growing, moving, and being flexible ourselves to help the child we are working with. As a volunteer you are dedicating part of yourself to being a "child detective" as well as a "program detective" --- basically you are trying to find out what is working for this child and what areas the program each person can grow can move in. If you notice something that you may not find to be beneficial to the program or the child, the first action you can take is mentioning this to his parents.

Here are some questions that your team can discuss:
Why is the child doing this?
What are they trying to tell us?
What can we do to change OUR behavior to help this child change theirs?

I look forward to hearing about the progress of your program and of the communication of your team! Please keep us posted!
Many loving thoughts,
Kim