help

[dallasdad]

i am the 34yr old father of a 11 yr old autistic son named dallas,he does not speak and refuses to use the potty but the biggest issue i have is his constant destroying of our house.it is 4 yrs old we have already had to redrywall his room for his carving of holes in the walls,he has torn up wall in the hallway,two walls in the living room and the master bathroom.does any one elses children perfrom this behavior?i am at my wits end.anyone got any answers?thanks mike

[AutMom]

I don't have answers but welcome to the group.

Does your son have any kind of school program?

[samsmom]

hi! well my son is only 3.5 yro and i am in your same shoes! i know iam not the only one out there! we did try something about a month ago... we started in his room that he shares with his twin brother. we painted one wall with chalk board paint and the other with with magnetic paint!! hes so busy with those two he forgot about the other ones! now we have to star fixing all ones down stairs so we can have company again!!!oh yah we made some of his pecs into magnets and all of his other things he loves!

[tracylynn64]

I think taht is a wonderful idea... I have found the biggest key is intervention. If I can find a way to redirect my sons need to get into things and destroy it helps. It is very emotionally draining , something people with normal kids dont understand. My son is 4 and is very destructive, very rude, and doesnt seem to notice anything around him when he gets a mind set. He is a runner(i'm sure youall know what that means) and freaks out at any changes in routine. The funny thing is we dont really have a concrete routine so if you have to stray from what he is expecting I have to start preparing him in advance and find a way to include him in the change; like he is to carry something so taht he thinks he is part of whatever errand or stop we are doing. I understand the new house thing since I had to pull up the carpet in my sons room already since he likes to dump things out, pees and poops on florr if he doesnt have a pullup, if he finds a squirt bottle of anything(cleaner,perfume, hairspray anything) he will squirt anything in his room. I know sometimes it is hard to have patience and sometimes I yell. I look at my son though and he is so proud of his messes that I cant stay mad long. I think the wall idea is a good idea. I might try it mysef and see if I can give him something to do so he wont feel the need to destroy. Hang in there!
tracylynn64

[elsayednm]

i am the 34yr old father of a 11 yr old autistic son named dallas,he does not speak and refuses to use the potty but the biggest issue i have is his constant destroying of our house.it is 4 yrs old we have already had to redrywall his room for his carving of holes in the walls,he has torn up wall in the hallway,two walls in the living room and the master bathroom.does any one elses children perfrom this behavior?i am at my wits end.anyone got any answers?thanks mike


What is his daily program. Does he follow any routine. The autistic children when they don `t have something to do or a full organized program they start behave in a very diffrent w ay. What i suggest for you is to revise his daily program and try to fill it with something interesting and you will see the different. use his energy to the max. and he will stop. Devlop routine.

[AutMom]

The last time my son tore a room apart it was mainly due to a casein infraction the day before.

[all4autism mom]

Hi,
I have twins with autism and they used to do the same things about 2 years ago they were non verbal,but once we got them into a program with our local autism training center and they started positive behavior support we have since been making huge strides my kids now have a good start on verbal communication and are in a reg ed kindergarten with support.I think once we identify why they are doing these things such as what is the antecedent and reinforcers are we can most of the time work it out.

[Bethintx]

My son used to eat rocks. He need that oral stimulation. So we bought those fat hard pretzels for him. It seemed to help. Also, once your child is three years old he is eligible to go into the public school system. Mine started at Three and it made a big difference! Before age three, he was in an early childhood intervention program. We got our formerly non-verbal son to start speaking using the PECS system. (Picture exchange communication) We don't need them now! I understand different states and even different school sysems are different. But it might be worth checking out!

[all4autism mom]

Hi,
thats how my sons started talking they got to phase 3 and did not do very well but shortly after started talking.