wat to do??? HELP

[aoife411]

my brother was diagnosed as have aspergers syndrome little over a year ago and only recently about a week ago there was an incident in school where someone had  smeared poo on the walls and this tuesday it happend again. now he didn't own up to me or my parents and he owned up to it today to his teacher and came home and told my dad. now as you can imagine my dad was not happy. now this it totally out of order he would never do anything like that and hasn't until roughly 2 weeks ago. now i am doing a childcare course in college and i have come accross this before i went to college and they say it could be a behavourial problems but i'm just woundering where do we go from here??? now there has been other incidents where he punched one boy in school because he scared them etc help or advice is needed

[Jason C Bourret, Ph.D., BCBA-D]

Problem behavior of this sort is sometimes observed in individuals with autism-spectrum disorders, but it sounds like this is new behavior from your brother.  I'm not sure how old your brother is, but it sounds like he communicates effectively.  The most successful interventions for this kind of behavior involve contingency management, and a behavior contract might be effective.  It sounds like he understands that he shouldn't be doing this, given the fact that it sounds like he attempted to hide the fact that he was the one who did it.  Getting mad at him isn't going to help, but explaining clearly that this sort of behavior is unacceptable, and arranging some contingencies for him is a good place to start.  For example, something simple like grounding him from TV, video games, computer access (or other preferred activities) might be an effective consequence.  In addition to that, you might add an additional incentive for going one week, two weeks, a month, etc... with no problem behavior like this.  Explain the rules to him, be consistent about following through with them, and interventions like this are often effective.

[JMcKale]

This is not characteristic behavior of people with Asperger's Syndrome any more than it is characteristic behavior of "normal" people. I think your brother might have been misdiagnosed or might have some deeper psychological issues.