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More Child Health and Safety Articles
Express Yourself Reducing Challenging Behaviors With Functional Communication
A young boy hides under a slide with a grimace on his face and hands tightly clasped over his ears. Children whiz by him, laughing and screeching in play. A child darts under the slide next to him, shouting as he attempts to dodge being tagged. Then it happenshit, bite and run.
These types of situations can occur frequently in families of children diagnosed with autism and other communication disorders. Our society does not accept what is perceived as aggressive or challenging behaviors, nor are the behaviors identified as appropriate. In order to help individuals with autism and related disorders, as a society, we need to shift attitudes to understand their behavior and recognize that behavioral responses may be outside of a person's control. The key to remember is that understanding the behavior does not mean accepting the behavior.
Behavior is a form of communication. One of the diagnostic criteria for autism is that identified individuals have “persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts.” Individuals identified with communication deficits may use behavior to express their wants, needs, fears, emotions, etc. because their behavior serves a function and produces an outcome.
Communication deficits can present as poor speech sound production, nonverbal or minimally verbal, limited expressive vocabulary, or limited social skills. These deficits impact the ability to effectively communicate even the most basic wants and needs. Teaching a functional communication system can be an effective way to reduce frustration and provide a functional and appropriate means of communication.
Functional communication skills can be taught to children to give them a way to express wants, preferences, needs and feelings in a socially acceptable and effective way. In order to teach these skills, the first step is to identify the easiest means of communication for the individual, then develop a hierarchy to progress to more sophisticated methods. Means of communication can be one or a combination of spoken language, sign language, body language, gestures, a communication board, picture icons or speech generating devices.
Once the mode of communication has been identified, vocabulary is developed. Behavior typically serves as function of desire for preferred object or action, escaping a situation or non-preferred task, self-calming, avoiding pain or discomfort, or gaining attention. Functional communication requires teaching a specific communication skill that serves the same function as the behavior. For example, if the function of the behavior has been identified as escape from a task, vocabulary could include “I need a break”, “All done”, or “I need help.” If the function of the behavior has been identified as desire for a preferred object, vocabulary could include, “I want”, “more”, or labeling of specific items.
After introducing the vocabulary, practice and consistency will help to develop the skill. Academic and daily living skills use repetition in teaching. In the same way, functional communication uses repetition to teach individuals how to request a break, help or ask for a preferred item. When functional communication skills are modeled, prompted and reinforced, the ability to effectively communicate grows and replaces less effective, challenging behaviors.
The moment the boy at the park hit, bit and ran, he communicated his need. From a social perspective, the behavior itself was unacceptable. With a functional mode of communication, he would have had the tools to communicate in a way that could be heard whether it was a verbal or nonverbal (eg picture/gestural) response. He might have been trying to communicate messages such as “Why are you here?” “You're too close to me”, or “I want to leave.” But, since he did not have a way to communicate these things he instead engaged in behavior that got his point across.
When we learn to understand behavior, we can begin to identify the function. When we teach functional communication, life-long communication skills are developed. With these skills, the need to rely on adverse behaviors is significantly reduced and individuals are able to express themselves that can lead to more productive and fulfilling lives for all.
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