What developmental age is your 5 yr old? Luke was in the
screaming phase for a while. The dev. ped said it was a form of
stimming for him. Thankfully, he just grew out of it. At
the worst times of it, we gave Luke a time out, explaining to him that
it was be/c of his screaming and he'd come out of the time out when he
was quet for a minute. Luke responds well to time outs, so this
worked pretty well. Good luck!
Kellie
Hi everyone !
I just joined the group looking for answers and support. I have 2 boys, a 5 yr old with autism, and an almost 2 yr old who, so far, seems to be developping "normally".
Our biggest issue is the screaming. My autistic little boy screams a lot. Really loud, as if is being tortured or kidnapped or locked up somewhere, yet, nothing is happening!!! I don't know what to do to stop it. He does it also when I tell him no for something, almost every time actually, or if he has to wait a few seconds or minutes...
Maybe its because he knows that it really gets to me. And it causes a chain reaction; the baby starts screaming too, then the father because he can't deal with the noise, its has gotten worse over the past 3 days.
I'm not sure how to discipline him either. I running aroung all day trying to keep everything calm and contain the noise. I've been keeping the windows shut because of his screaming. I've read posts and I still havn't read about anybody in the same situation.
Thank you.i wish i could help you, but i'm in the same situation with my six year
old. she does this high pitched shrieking for no reason at all. the
worst is when she does it when she wakes up in the morning. thats not
exactly what i want to hear first thing in the morning.
Busymimi,
Hi and welcome to the board. My son with autism is only 3 but he was a huge screamer until just more recently. He would scream out of no where for no apparent reason. It would make me run to his room or where ever he was at the time fearing that he had hurt himself badly...but everytime he was fine. It also seemed that everytime I would try and tell him not to do this it would get louder and more persistant. He doesn't do it as often anymore unless he is frustrated with a toy or something. What I did differently was ignore it. It was so hard to not run in there and check. I think with my son in some way he was feeding off of my reaction at times. Like I said...knock on wood....he doesn't do it really anymore and i'm praying he doesn't start back up any time soon. But mostly just wanted to let you know that I know what you are going through. Oh...also...Adam still hates the word NO and gets very angry if I say it to him. LOL
Karrie
Jeffrey was and is a screamer. It is listed as one of the symptoms of autism. Or at least it is listed on the flier I have on my door. Sometimes I can get him to be quiet, other times I can't. But punishing him for the behaviour itself just reinforces that behaviour. Sometimes I can redirect it. Other times I ask him what is wrong. And sometimes I ignore it. Sometimes he does it out of frustration. Other times he does it just to be doing it.
Tammy
Welcome to the board Busymimi!
We just had a thread on screaming just a few weeks ago that might be helpful to you.
I agree with Tammy here, it is listed as a symptom of autism. I also agree on not disciplining because kids on the spectrum have a hard time connecting the undesired behavior with the discipline. See if you can get communication about what is wrong (Show / Tell me) and try to redirect.
Is your son verbal? Does he have communication delays? Its very possible he may be doing this as a way of communicating. My son does it out of frustration most of the time (he does it out of excitement and other emotions as well) even though he is verbal. When he gets overly anxious or overly stimulated, frustrated or stressed out he screams.
Hi welcome to the board! My 2 yr old ds is a screamer too. Mostly out of frustration. But sometimes I don't know why. There are times I have to cover my ears when it's too high pitched and very loud.
Amber
http://www.ghainc.org/autism_chart.gif
http://www.ausm.org/Information/General/Autism%20flyer%20in% 20English.pdf
The second flyer is two pages and it does require Acrobat Reader, which is free. And the flyers have helped. They can't complain about anything now, because the behaviours is listed on the flyers I have up on the door. I do have both of them up there. Good Luck!!!!
Tammy
Hi, I just joined tonight too.
My son, now 10, was a screamer starting at 2--he would go on and off--6 mos on, 1 year off (I'd think it was gone) and then on again for 9 mos. He finally was finished when he was about 6. It is one of the symptoms and the symptoms all make sense if you can figure out what is the cause--I agree w/ the above to find out what he wants/needs/bothering him/over-understimmed in environ or sensory/etc.--when I couldn't get that (which takes time to figure out and is complex) I would put a favorite thing on time out (with chances to stop screaming first--a countdown 1-stop screaming or this train (he knew every name of every train ever born!!!!) will go on time, 2-etc. It was kind of a reward/punishment in one. That also is giving an external intervention but it can help develop his internal controls. It could totally backfire but that worked best (and still does) for me and Paul.
Good Luck!!
This poster similar to what Tammy posted but with a bit less info on it can be ordered if anyone is interested http://www.autism-biomed.org/poster.htm
Call the Autism Society of America (1-800-3-AUTISM) for a copy
It comes as an 8.5 x 11 inch chart. Enlarge it at Kinko's™ t o poster size (about 225% enlargement) and then mount it on the wall in your waiting room.