by Ashley Dalgliesh

Kids with autism, and frankly any kid, can have bad habits. These are the annoying habits that can be embarrassing, but they happen so often you are immune. For example, picking your nose. For me, I have the gross out factor working for me. My first reaction is “ohhhh yuck!” My kid thinks this “ohhh yuck!” reaction is funny and does it again and again. My “ooooh yuck!” response is clearly isn’t working for me; it is making the situation worse. I have to learn the art of no emotional response and redirect.

By redirect, I mean, offer another more acceptable means of dealing with this behavior. My redirect, in this instance, is to say, “Here, use a Kleenex.” Model if necessary. Do this over and over every time you see your child picking his nose, so there is a sort of comfort in this response. It works…my son went and ended up getting his own Kleenex. There are lapses, so you may need to refresh his memory on the expected behavior.

Kids with autism can get stuck in a circuit, like moving from station to station performing a task and then starting again. My son, for instance, might jump onto his knees, then touch the chair, and bite his own shoulder, then walk around the couch. Surely, he might be doing this for sensory input, his own pleasure, or his own OCD persistence to fulfill this need. He seems to get stuck in such a routine with no way out, but to repeat it.

Sometimes, redirecting him to step out of the environment can break the routine. For instance, I would ask him to come over to the laundry room and help me get the wok down from the top of the cabinet for dinner. Since he loves to help and climb up and get me stuff, it is a great redirect. This particular redirect not only broke the routine it got him doing something even more enjoyable. Need I emphasize climbing here….our kids love to climb. He also likes the praise for helping and feeling needed and of value.

In terms of thinking of what kind of redirect I should use, you need to visualize what you would like to see happen. Then, state the behavior you want to see. I know it sounds simple, but we are so geared to the “No. No. No.” response to an unwanted behavior.   It is we, the teachers, parents who are the ones that are stuck. We need to train our brains to remember to refrain from saying “No,” or any visual emotional response and emphatically state the behavior we want our kids to do. Remember catch them being good and praise them.

It is pretty difficult to keep doing the unwanted behavior if someone is directing you elsewhere. Here are some examples of redirects with the unwanted behavior mentioned first then the redirect:

Unwanted Behavior           Redirect

Pulling down pants               “Pants Up”

Throwing down iPad             “Put iPad down gently”

Wetting Pants                        “Time to go to the bathroom”(Use frequently, hard to pee on an empty bladder)

Giving dogs paper, things     “Here, give the dog a treat instead”

Repeating “Ah!”                     (Give PECs book) “Tell me”

I currently have a chart of redirects to remind family members and myself to encourage appropriate behaviors. You may be saying to yourself, “arrrgh, do I really have to do this?”, but yes, you can. I am cheering you on.