Hands off

What do you do when you can't get your point across? When people don't pay attention to you? When it seems as if others are speaking a different language?

Grant deals with these questions every day. I can only imagine what my own response would be. I know how frustrated I get when I just have to repeat myself.

Since his earliest experiences with ABA, one of his answers has been to hit the closest person. Well, "hit" is a bit strong... it's really a slap on the top of the head. He's never hurt anybody, but clearly as he gets bigger and stronger, it's become a serious issue. He hits when he's frustrated, when he just can't get his point across - especially when he's being told to do something and his point is "no".

At a team meeting with the school a few months back, we all agreed it was time for the hitting to stop. We also agreed that a positive reinforcement system would be our first plan; we just needed the right reinforcer. One of the hardest parts about doing true ABA with Grant is that reinforcers are short-lived for him. Even when it's his very favorite thing in the world, he's willing to give it up so that he doesn't have to do the task at hand.

So what to use? It turns out, he answered this for us himself. One day when we were playing with the Magna Doodle, he writes "Hollywood Video" just as clear as day. Now, not only did we not know he knew how to write this, but we didn't really know he had a concept of what the store is about. We'd only been there once or twice, but evidently he remembered it very well as the place with all the movies. Not long after this, it was very clear that Hollywood Video would be our positive reinforcer.

His teachers have been fantastic in implementing this plan. At first, they were keeping him out of situations which had been prompting hitting so that he could get the positive reinforcement. After about a week, we were sure he completely understood the trade-off so he was taken off the 'easy path' and he was expected to stop hitting in all the normal school situations. It's definitely been a success; he'll go several days getting his prize, and then a day or two with a hit. There have been days when he cries at the end of the day when he came so close and he knows he won't get his video fix that day.

We've also used this at home on the weekends. His little brother has been the happy recipient of less hits on the head. Even more exciting, this task has brought new, unprompted words from him. In the afternoon, when he knows that he has not hit, he walks up to me and says "no hitting, Hollywood Video, Grant". It's probably his most diverse set of words and phrases and he came up with it all on his own. More words and less hitting - can't complain about that.