The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Families will learn how behavior functions act as a communication tool, what their child's behavior is expressing about the environment they share, and then will be introduced to assessment techniques for their home. Participants will leave with tools to make home adaptations, leading to better family rapport. I believe every child deserves the opportunity to feel safe and comfortable in their own home. So in this presentation I will introduce families to the idea that their child's challenging behavior is really a communication tool, that the child is trying to let them know that something in their life is uncomfortable and needs adjustment. I will share examples from my classroom of children who exhibited challenging behaviors, as well as examples from my home as a parent of a child with autism. When discussing challenging behaviors I will stress that the type of behaviors I am referring to are those that interfere with the child's quality of life, not just minor annoyances. If behaviors exhibited by the child are causing that child and/or the entire family to miss important events, interventions need to happen. A child's meltdown at dinner can mean that a family never gets to eat together. We will talk about why that might be happening, and what a family can do differently so they are able to share their important moments.

That will segue into my next objective, which is learning how to assess the environment of the child to learn why the behaviors are happening. I will discuss the sensory processing issues that we all experience, and why it is so important for us to recognize similar issues in our children. Once I have established a base knowledge of sensory processing, I will give examples of what the different sensory sensitivities look like in a typical family home. I will connect the information to the home and classroom scenarios I shared in the beginning, such as how my child is easily agitated by noise and the negative effects that had on our home life and for her at school. The information I share here will be drawn from extensive training I have received, as well as my own strategies from my classroom and home. The concept of an intentionally well planned environment to support a child's social-emotional growth is not common knowledge in many homes and classrooms, yet I feel it is essential when living with a child with an autism spectrum disorder. 

Here is where I will share with participants an observation checklist that I have created to use in their home so they can better understand and recognize when and where the challenging behavior is taking place. The checklist will help families notice patterns in behavior, which can lead them to understand what their child's behavior is telling them about their home. I will return to the example of my daughter's challenges, how we identified her auditory triggers in our home, which will lead the discussion to ways to make adaptations. I am very frugal, so the modification ideas I will share have little to no cost to the families yet the benefits will be potentially huge. The presentation will finish with a list of resources that I use regularly, citations if necessary, and my contact information for further inquiries.

Learning Objectives: