Melissa has high functioning autism and ADD. She lives with both of her biological parents and has an older brother who is in high school. Her dad works a lot of the time and the mom is loving but spacey at times. She does not have trouble socializing with other students, but most of the time she can be overeager and aggressive. She does not like when people are mad at her. If an adult gets angry with her she will start crying and be very apologetic.
I believe she is trying to gain attention from either a student or an adult or both. Taking someone else's things or hurting them will always get attention and she doesn't get the same attention when she acts nicely.
I would agree, Melissa seems to be seeking attention from both peers and adults. How about trying an intervention that would allow her the attention but would remove it if she reverted back to her negative attention seeking methods. For example For example, let her be the teacher assistant, which means she would distribute materials and other small tasks. If however, she reverted to her "old-ways" she would lose the position for a 24 hours period, but could earn it back by seeking attention in a socially acceptable way.
ReplyDeleteI believe Melissa would benefit from learning appropriate behavior. An alternate skill intervention would be for her to attend a social skills class with teaching by behavior modeling exercises. Have practice situations comparable to those situations where she is the bully and show appropriate ways to act, with much positive feedback. She wants to get adult attention, so set aside time each day for one on one meetings with her just to talk to her.
ReplyDeleteI believe that she is also trying to gain attention from her peers as well as the adult in the situation. I think that when Melissa is behaving in a wanted manner then you should use positive reinforcemnt and verbal praise. If she is resorting to negative attention then maybe try all the POSITIVE attention she can handle as well. Maybe set up a system with her that if she discontinues negative behviors by nintey percent then she can recieve some sort of positive reward and then slowly attempt to diminish all behaviors.
ReplyDeleteMelissa's function is attention. I would like to try to prevent the behavior from occuring by focusing on positivw reinforcement before bad behavior begins. I would use lots of posistive reinforcement and be really positive. It might be a good idea to try and set up some activites Melissa might be interested in outside, such as 4 square or a ball game. If she feels more like a part of a group and included the behavior might change.
ReplyDeleteMelissa's behavior is attention-seeking and she acts aggressively to get someone to notice her. She apparently doesn't care if the attention is in the form of a reprimand or punishment. Observation might reveal an antecedent to the behavior. Does the school have an anti-bullying program? If that didn't help, maybe she could work with the school counselor or SPED teacher, do some role playing where she is the one being bullied. It could be reveal why she behaves so aggressively.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Melissa's behavior comes from wanting attention. I noticed that you said she doesn't like it when people are mad at her, has anyone tried to explain to her that taking someone’s things or hurting them makes them angry and sad? I know that students who have autism have a hard time understanding that other people have feelings too because of the whole not really understand that others have minds, feelings, and opinions too, but maybe showing her pictures of what the kids feel like, so she gets a visual. For example, have a red angry face, blue sad face, yellow happy face and so on and then you could do some role playing with those pictures to explain the emotions that are happening. This worked for me with one of my students; however he had a very high functioning case of autism so when using the pictures, he understood how others have feelings and what they could be feeling in different situations.
ReplyDeleteWhile I definitely think there is an attention component to this behavior, it might be worth trying a sensorial intervention on top of anything else. Perhaps a bean bag or stress ball to hold on to might keep her hands busy and away from other people's things.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the attention-seeking, she might benefit from some direct instruction such as: "when you want someone to talk or play with you, you can ask them like this __________ "(obviously you would model the asking process).
With autism, it's possible she simply doesn't know that this behavior might make people less inclined to hang out with her. She might need to be told/reminded of this frequently.
Coming up with some group games or organized social settings where there are clear rules may help Melissa bond with some of the other children and get their attention in a more positive way. Perhaps a little one-on-one time with a teacher might go a long way as an antecedent intervention.
I agree with everyone else that Melissa's behavior is attention seeking and feel like, for her, attention is attention no matter how she gets it. I also want to second what Sonja said about using visuals to teach facial cues. I had a student one year who worked on this lesson everyday to learn how to tell what others were feeling. A social skills group with some role-playing may also be helpful. I would try having the student she took the items from talk to her. This may reinforce the idea that the other person is affected by her actions and has feelings and that it is not just the adults that are upset by her behavior.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Melissa is seeking attention. To her, the best way to get it is through negativity. KdgQueen and Sonja made a good point about facial cues. Melissa would greatly benefit from a social skills group to work on peer relationships and interactions. With autism, she is probably struggling with how her actions affect others and why others would choose to interact with her. I would also make sure that I am putting all of my energy into recognizing and focusing on when she is making positive and appropriate peer itneraction
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