Womans-Corner
Articles and Information for Working Women and Family
Special Needs Children

The advice contained within these articles is offered for your consideration by Lisa Simmons. You, as a parent or professional, must decide whether any of the ideas presented here should be implemented in your unique situation. The staff of the Ideal Lives Project encourage all site visitors to always utilize this information in a manner that is respectful and in the best interest of their child, student or loved one.

Meeting the challenge of challenging behaviors
by Lisa Simmons

One of our greatest challenges as a person in the twenty-first century is dealing with other people's behavior. Even under the best of circumstances we have difficulty putting ourselves in the other guy's shoes & understanding why people act the way they do. Complicate that by throwing in someone who can't talk or has other physical or cognitive disabilities & the puzzle becomes even more complex.

The standard answer when someone with a disability presents a "challenging behavior" is to call in the "experts". Usually this involves either a psychologist or a psychiatrist who recommend a behavior plan, medication or both. Now both of these professionals can be a wonderful support & have excellent ideas. But for the disability professional or parent who has limited access to such support services or uses consultants & must make every minute count, here is a 4-step process to help you guide the process in the right direction.

Step 1. Check the pain angle

Many behaviors surface when individuals with limited speech experience pain and don't know what else to do. The important things to look at here are location & timing.

If the individual is hitting his/her head or face, check out common head ailments like headaches, ear infections, sinus infections, migraines, etc.

On the timing side, look around & see what other people are suffering from -- is it allergy season, flu season, etc. The key is to ensure that there is no medical problem related to the behavior -- that the individual is physically healthy.

Step 2. Check the change angle

All of us rely heavily on the people closest to us & the security of our homes & normal routines. We miss them when they are gone and we have trouble adjusting when someone tries to replace or change them. If an individual with disabilities experiences significant or sometimes even minor changes in these area their reaction may show itself as a "challenging behavior".

The important "fix" if this is the problem area is to figure out what changes can be undone and which just need to be supported through. For example, if the staff adjusted the night they had been renting movies that can probably be put back to the "correct" night. If, however, a favorite caregiver has moved away, then all that is possible is to provide the individual with a disability as much emotional support as we can while they adjust to this loss.

Once change has been established as a sensitive area those supporting the individual will, at a minimum, need to:

• Keep track of who the important people are in their life and respect those relationships.
  
• Maintain stability in their staff and home environment.
  
• Work with relief staff to make sure they know the individual's preferred routines and patterns.

3. Know the frustration factor

For almost everyone with a cognitive disability and for many with physical disabilities, communication is a major issue. Imagine the frustration of never being able to fully express your thoughts, your feelings, your needs, your desires, or even where it hurts.

If you work with someone who is nonverbal or has limited speech, then your top priority needs to be finding that individual an effective way to communicate his or her wishes & preferences.

If the individuals has also been displaying "challenging behaviors" then you may be pleasantly surprised how much these behaviors decrease once the individual discovers there is a faster and more effective way to get what they want.

4. Do the A-B-Cs

If the individual is healthy, has had no big changes in their life, and has an effective way to communicate then it's time to look at the behavior itself. Behavior analysts tell us this is as easy as A-B-C:

1. (antecedent) - What's happening before the behavior
   
   
2. (behavior) - what does the behavior itself look like &
   
   
3. (consequences) - what is happening after the behavior

All other factors being equal, most behaviors are working toward 1 of 2 goals -- getting something we want OR avoiding something we don't like.

Once you have "the facts" for your particular situation then you can work on adjusting the situation.

Let's look at an example: Lisa works on an assembly line. Every morning, about 30 minutes into her shift, she starts throwing the work items on the line in front of her. When this happens, she is sent home for the remainer of her shift without pay.

** A - attending work
** B - throwing things
** C - gets to leave work

In this example it's likely that there is something about the work situation this person is trying to avoid -- they don't like their job, they don't get along with the co-worker next to them, they are getting frustrated trying to do a job that's too difficult. Hopefully the individual or those closest to them will be able to narrow it down for you.

Now it's time to look at solutions:

** Try a different job
** Try a different seat, next to different co-workers
** Do some extra training on the job to reduce frustration or
** Find an easier job

This is a simple illustration and we all know real life is rarely this simple. The solution to Lisa's behavior may be any of these, none of these, or a combination of things. She may be getting frustrated by the task and then be getting teased by a co-worker for not keeping up. Add to that, she may be getting hungry and irritable before she has the opportunity to take a break.

The most important thing to remember about working with people and their behavior is that most "problems" can be fixed in a positive and relatively easy manner, once we know what the real issue is. The key is not to jump to medicating people or handing out negative consequences before you understand that "real issue".

The nice thing about using this 4-step process is that if you have done your job correctly and the behavior still remains at the end of the path, you have probably eliminated most of the environmental factors. You can now proceed with more confidence to consider internal issues that may require treatment with medication.

All My Best,

* Note: If you should discover a broken link within the above article, please contact the Author and inform them of the problem. Thank you.