Recent aggression in autistic teen

[pat2411]

I have a 13.5 year old son, who has been diagoned in Autistic Spectrum disorder. He is verbal and has decent understanding and has been going to mainstream school for the past 6 years. He however has an aid who sits with him in the school.

He has obsession for toy cars and looks forward to getting new toy cars as incentives. He likes to read, but used to be not keen on studies.

He is now in 9th grade and in the last 3 weeks, we have seen a dramatic increase in his screaming if anything is not to his liking. For eg he does not want to go to school and hence throws tantrums and screams at times. In the past 2-3 days; he has started to trouble the aid who sits with him in his class and asks irrelevant questions continuously. We are not sure on the reason for the change in his behaviour as he was never like this behaviour and had never screamed to show his displeasure.

In the past 4 months, we also have 2 teachers who come home twice a week for 45 minutes to teach him one-on-one. He is ok in these sessions, though not necessarily focussed.

Please help.

[missy72450]

WHEN THESE KIDS HIT PUBERTY THEY HAVE EMOTIONAL CHANGES THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND. THESE ARE ISSUES SOMETIMES NOT EASILY HANDELED BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE. ASK IF THERE IS A PATTERN AT SCHOOL. ARE THEY DOING MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS AT SCHOOL WHEN THESE BEHAVIORS START? THE NOISE LEVELS OVER THE INTERCOM CAN SET THESE THINGS OFF. IS IT DURING OPEN DISCUSSION BECAUSE TOO MANY DISTRACTIONS CAN MAKE THEM MORE AGGRESIVE BECAUSE OF THE OVERSTIMULATION. MY GRANDSON OFTEN TIMES WILL GO TO THE BATHROOM AND WAIT UNTIL ALL THIS IS OVER. HE USE TO HIDE UNDER THE DESK BUT WE GOT THAT BEHAVIOR TO STOP. GOOD LUCK.

MISSY

[Dazon50]

Has he had a physical to see if something is going on there?  If it has come on like that, something may have changed he doesn't like or knows something is going to happen he is struggling with.  Maybe he had a new awareness of something but cannot put it into words & it is stressing him out.

Has something changed in your household?

How affectionate is he?  Do you take time to sit down or if he paces, focus on him & listen when talking with him?  Have you asked him if he hurts (stomach, head, etc.)  Being specific helps than the broad questions like...what is the matter?

When there is an escalation of behaviors, it usually signals there is something going on.  Patience (as hard as it may be) and love, being alert to finding the reasons and how to handle it.

Does he see someone in a counseling capacity?  Therapy of any kind?  With looking at reasons, is he sensitive to odors, textures, etc.?  Have they remodeled at his school in recent times?  When they use chemicals/paint, etc., it can bother some individuals.  Also, changing the scenery.  

Unless he tells you, there is a lot of potential reasons for this.  Even the school season winding down & excitement over that or if there is no structure during the summer, a nervousness about that....so many possibilities here, but you have some things to consider.

He is fortunate to have you to advocate and be willing to go the extra miles for him.

:-)) Please keep us posted.