On Self-Injurious Behavior
I felt a bit skeptical on reading an article entitled How to Eliminate Self-Injury in Autistic Children in the December 17th AssociatedContent.com. My own son Charlie is coming out of a period in which he used to head-bang a number of times a day, to the point that he almost always had a bruise in the middle of his forehead.
The AssociatedContent.com article does start by noting that SIBs have something to do with frustration; a child who (like my son) does not have a lot of language or other means of communication is trying to express him or herself and to get attention by using SIB. The article notes that SIBs may have a “biochemical component” in the form of releasing endorphins, which allow a child to temporarily forget the frustration and pain and which eventually even “mask” the pain, so that the SIB becomes “addictive.” Communication therapy, drugs, and nutrition are cited as treatments.
The AssociatedContent.com article does not mention the educational/behavioral methods (ABA, specifically) that have been helping Charlie to learn other ways to deal with the frustration and communication difficulties that often occur before he head-bangs. Teaching Charlie to ask “I want a break” or to go and sit in an area where there are mats and pillows have not been easy to do, but he is learning, and I hope the results will be to teach him to cope with frustrations in the future. (There also seems to be some kind of sensory component to his head-banging; at this time, I am not able to explain more about this, and have been trying to learn more.)
The AssociatedContent.comarticle’s author, Cheryl Carpenter, is described as a “sales consultant for a funiture liquidation company” and self-injurious behavior (SIB) in an autistic child is a very serious matter—-something that needs to be addressed by highly trained professionals who understand autism. I appreciate AssociatedContent.com providing information about this topic (which is not one that many people wish to address) but I would like to know who the writer’s sources were on this very serious topic.
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