Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Managing Challenging Behaviour Chapter Four
Attwood, T. (1998) Asperger’s Syndrome:
A Guide for Parents and
Professionals.
Ignoring the behaviour may be appropriate for minor behaviours.
If gaining attention is the motivation for the behaviour, reacting to it
may actually be increasing it rather than decreasing it. The student may
need to be directly taught how to gain attention, wait for turns, or other
social interaction skills. Ignoring may be difficult to implement in a
classroom setting, particularly if the behaviour is disruptive to the
learning of the student or the other students. Ensure that the student
is not being inadvertently reinforced by other sources, such as peer
attention.
Redirection is a vital component of any behaviour intervention plan.
If a behaviour is unacceptable, the student needs to know what is
expected instead, and the expectations need to be communicated clearly.
The use of a visual aid, such as a pictograph, is often helpful. Redirection
is used in combination with positive programming strategies. The student
will need to be taught the more appropriate alternative behaviour, and
provided with opportunities to practice and rehearse this behaviour.
Removal from the reinforcements for the undesired behaviour may
involve removal from the situation. If a student is very anxious or upset,
it may be necessary for the student to leave the situation to calm down
before any redirection or teaching of alternative behaviours can occur.
This approach can be combined with positive programming strategies,
such as teaching students to recognize when they are becoming anxious,
and teaching them to independently remove themselves from the situation
before they lose control of their behaviour. Because removal from the
learning environment is a serious form of intervention, it should be
discussed through the SEP process, used cautiously and carefully
documented.
Tangible Reinforcers
A tangible reinforcer can be a powerful motivator to strengthen a
desired behaviour. Often they are used in the initial stage of the
intervention. At this stage, the student may show an increased resistance
to demands or learning a new objective. Therefore, a frequent, highly
motivating and immediate reinforcer is required to motivate a desired
behaviour and reduce the student’s resistance to a specific task. Once
the desired behaviour has been achieved over a period of time, the
tangible reinforcer needs to be gradually phased out. A tangible reinforcer
must always be accompanied with a positive social reward.
Tangible reinforcers can take many forms, depending on what is
Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders 63