Hand Leading | Autism PDD

This is a GOOD sign!!! Your son is TRYING to communicate. And WANTING to communicate is at least half the battle.

If your son is nonverbal or minimally verbal, speak to the speech therapist about starting a PECS program. This will give him a far easier way to express his wants and needs than pulling your around. But you MUST fully use the program for it to be effective. The truth is, it's imperative to immediately pay attention to him when he pulls you. If you actually know why he's pulling you, say "No pulling. Say 'cookie.'" What you need to teach him is the appropriate communication instead of simply pulling. Getting training from the speech therapist to learn to do this will help immensely. Try to see these pulling incidents as excellent teaching opportunities.

I wante dt o second what tzoya said - it can really really be so annoying but its a good thing overall Sorry you're having such a rough day! I can imagine it's no fun having to drop what you're doing everytime he wants something. The best thing I can think of doing is redirecting him to a replacement behavior that is more appropriate. I'm assuming your son is probably non-verbal or has limited verbal ability if he is hand-leading, so here are a few ideas I can think of:

1. Everytime he comes to grab your finger, hand-over-hand prompt him to tap your shoulder appropriately and immediately leave with him to see what he wants. Initially you want to work on getting him to tap you Independently, and he'll need to be immediately reinforced by you going with him. After a week or so of this, don't allow him access to your hands, and wait a couple of seconds to see if he'll initiate tapping you, if he dosen't do it within about 5 seconds, HOH him to tap you again. Work on getting him to tap you by increasing the time you allow before HOH prompting him to tap you. Once you have him doing this (which WILL take a while for him to learn), you can work on increasing the time before you give him his reinforcement (going with him.)

2. Everytime he comes to grab your finger, hand him a "help" PEC/symbol/card, or prompt him to sign help. (Just follow what I explained above with this as well, working on getting him to do it independently.)

Good Luck!

When I see this coming, I sit on my hands. I'm still nursing a jammed thumb from an episode over a month ago. My son speaks now so I no longer allow him to hand lead me to anything. I hope things go better for you this week!

Hi There! :)

AJ did, AND sometimes still does! This IS a "form" of communication!

I, myself, don't like PECS....we TRIED, but AJ didn't really get into it...I even took pictures of the "real" thing. On that note, I would much, Much, MUCH rather have him use his words! You see AJ does have a lazy side of him (even though he still RUNS all the time
Anyway, I would find an alternative.....FIND SomeThing that works for BOTH of You's!
ScReEcH

The fingers on my right hand are still painful at times and also swells sometimes as a result of this. My son rarely does this anymore because he uses pecs but the damage has been done.
This is great that your child is trying to communicate! If you haven't done so already, consult an SLP about furthering his communication skills. There have been some ideas posted already about how to do so but I would caution you that a complete assessment should be done to determine the course to follow. Good luck and hope the fingers feel better!((((HUGS)))) Do you think he is doing this to show you something, such as lead you to something? In which case, I think that may be a great sign! Think of it as his way of "pointing". My son did this for a while to, but now he will get right in my face, like RIGHT in my face, and say "Mommy Mommy Mommy" really loud and then he will DESCRIBE what he wants my attention on. He does not point at all, never has.
Thanks

Part of me feelsl like I should just be happy for any communication. The other part says "my finger hurts, stop!"
we have all rolled our eyes to the heavens and said not again lol

shell
we have all rolled our eyes to the heavens and said not again lol

Amen, sister!
I don't know why it is so infuriating. Maybe because no matter what I am doing, typing, reading, cleaning, etc... he just grabs my finger without warning and will NOT LET GO. That is what it is. It is that when I say, okay, give me one minute, and stop pulling on my, he doesn't understand. But I almost feel like I am bring bullied by my child when he does that.

I just want to be able to say, don't yank me around by my finger, it hurts and wait 2 minutes! But I know he doesn't understand that it hurts me. Right now my knuckle is throbbing from him pulling on my finger. I just want to be able to explain to him, I am not being mean or ignoring him when I ask him to wait. I am not upset because he is trying to communicate (I NEVER want to send that message across), it just hurts when he pulls on my finger like that.

I'm sorry, I am just so frustrated with him this morning. We have been having great days that past week or so, and today he is high strung and having melt downs over the smallest things, back to back to back. The minute he sees me walk in the room, he starts demanding this and that.

I'm just at a lose as to what I can do for him right now. I am already stressed out, and I am just not handling his meltdowns and demands with my normal easy going attitude this morning.
I guess that is what happens when kids are really great for a few days, and then shock you with a bad day. Your defenses are down
I just needed to vent, to people who would understand what in the world I am talking about, lol.

everyone is entitled to a bad day hun

my son does that when he wants something also when he doesnt lol

but i am greatful for any communication i can get from him

so every time i go with him its only a few more minutes of bprrowed time

shell

sometimes he just wants a spinning partner lol

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