Self hurt

Is there any way to help a child stop the self hurt actions, such as biting himself?

[MJIthewriter]

Does the child seem to be stressed out when biting himself?

I used to bite myself quite a bit when I get stressed out.  No days I don't bite my arm unless I'm under extreme stress and pushed pass my threshold.  If I get to feeling like a trapped wild animal, then I lash out.  It seems when people use "tough love" on me, makes things much worse, and that's when I get stressed out and feel helpless. When I feel helpless and can't escape the frustration, then my arm may suffer or I may bang my head against something... I think the pain is a way of temperarly distracting me from the stress and silencing any argument I may be into.

It's interesting that I posted about this same issue in the aspergers forum. I'll see if I can link to the thread for futher reading:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/397541

I hope this is helpful in some way.

[chikp]

Could you provide any more information?  Usually children with autism use behaviors as a way to communicate something.  You should start looking at what happens immediately before he starts hurting himself.  Then you should look at how he responds to your intervention.  

How frequently is this happening?  It will be helpful for you to start making a list (often called an ABC chart Antecedent - Behavior - Consequence).  In this case the behavior would be the self-injurious behavior.  Pay close attention to the antecedent and the consequence for each occurrence.  

How old is the child?  Is he in school?  Receiving any therapies?  There are absolutely ways to help a child stop hurting himself but first you need to find out why he is doing it.

[Angela77]

Is there a Behavior Analyst involved?  The ABC chart mentioned above is many times used as part of a Functional Behavioral Assessment. This can be used to determine the function (or reason) the child is exhibiting this behavior.  If the child is in school, you can request that a Behavior Analyst conduct such an assessment and write a Behavior Improvement Plan.  Need more details on the child to give any more advice.