Welcome to my "Ask Me Anything" blog post series!
I answer lots of questions on my social media channels, and it makes sense to share this information (anonymously!) in case it is useful for others, too.
"Hi Jordan, We have an ASD child in a mainstream setting, reception but was deferred a year so technically year 1.
We have very high needs within the school, but we just don’t seem to be making progress with her. She demands your full attention at all times and still demands more.
When we try interventions like Attention Autism, we only manage stage 1 as she begins to hit adults and herself. She will be engaged for a few moments but will still hit herself.
We are struggling with how to handle her and give her a positive day. She's very repetitive in her language and will continually hit her head with her hand. We just want to help her. Thanks for your videos; they help massively."
I’m so pleased you reached out!
Last year, we saw something similar with one of our pupils, and we found a few things that helped her.
1 - Sensory regulation
Head hitting is very grounding for proprioception seekers. I wonder if she needs more input in this area. This Sensory Profiling Download might be useful to pinpoint her exact sensory profile and ideas to support.
2 - Rule out any medical issues
Get her parents to get her checked for migraine, seizures, or any other head or mouth or eye pain that may be causing her discomfort.
3 - Ensure she has a communication method that she can access even when she’s stressed. (Lots of our verbal communication disappears when stressed or anxious).
I have a free month trial of Widgit here to help you build a bank of visual cards for her.
4 - Adult reaction shift
We realised that although my student's head hurting started as a sensory seeking need, she soon learnt it brought adults to her quickly. This then became a communication for “I need help” and then “I need a snack”, “I’m uncomfortable”, and “I don’t like it”.
The issue was that we were allowing her hitting to be her more effective communication. To combat this, we had to force ourselves to act slower to the hitting and really urgently to any other form of communication, i.e. reaching, eye contact, guiding.. Anything!
Gradually, over time, we saw less hitting to access what she needed and more reaching.
One year on, after using all of the methods above, we see a regulated and predominantly happy pupil in our room who can communicate safely, and a huge reduction in the head hitting.
I am available for consultation booking if you'd like to chat more about this over a Zoom call.
I hope that helps! If you have any other questions, let me know.
*I am not a doctor or medical professional, so for some questions, you might want to contact your GP, the National Autistic Society, or the NHS.
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