pullling hair

[sharron]

hello, my 8yr old asd son keeps pulling his 5yr old sisters hair it is not just a bit it is great chunks of it nothing seems to be working to stop him doing it he seems to do it more to her when he is stressed out which is all the time at the minute he is ready to go back to school.

is there anything anyone can reccomend to stop him doing it thank you.

sharron

[BuntyB]

This is difficult, but other than trying to keep his stress levels down, your 5 year old would have to take some evasive action.

 

Would tying her her back or wearing a cap delay him long enough for you to intervene whn he gets like this? I don't know what his level of understnding is, but can you give him something else that it is okay to pull or tear up instead?

 

My daughter went through a time when she sunk her nails into her sister's cheek. Luckily it passed as she still has little scars where it happened. <'> You have my sympathy.

[sharron]

thanks shona for your reply l have tried tying her hair back and have told her to stay away from him untill he goe's back to school where he will hopefully calm down. it does not help with as he can't talk and does not have much understanding of what is being said to him. we are going in the caravan for a few days on tuesday so l should get some piece and quite as he likes camping.

sharron

[lsw146]

the advice I was given when working with a child who constantly pulled hair was to tell the child to do something positive such as "x hands down" or "x hands on lap". Children with obsessive behaviours or communication problems often miss the "n't" part of a word such as "doN'T pull hair" and hear the reinforcing "PULL HAIR"

 

You haven't said how you respond so I hope I am not teaching you to suck eggs!!

 

PS this advice was from a really experienced Speech and Langauge Therapist and works well for all behaviours