ASD (Autism spectrum disorder), is a complex neurodevelopmental condition. Challenges in social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors characterize it. Among the various behaviors associated with autism, hitting and laughing can be particularly challenging for caregivers, educators, and even researchers.
Much insight can be gained about the workings of the autistic mind and why people with ASD experience difficulty in processing and articulating their emotions by looking into seemingly unrelated behaviors.
The Phenomenon of Hitting in Individuals with Autism
Autism-related hitting behaviors vary from self-harming behaviors to direct hostility to people or things. It’s essential to remember that hitting in autism is mostly caused by unmet needs and difficulties rather than by deliberate anger.
Types of Hitting Behaviors:
SIB stands for self-injurious behaviors, such as hitting one’s self often in the head or face. The common triggers for such actions include sensory input overload and emotional stress. Self-injurious behaviors serve a particular psychological need to gain a break from a certain aspect of the environment or just feel out of control over what happens to one’s environment.
Aggression towards others: Beating, slapping, or punching others, which may happen when frustration or overstimulation is felt. In such a case, it is very difficult to handle such behavior by a caregiver and educator because they might end up in physical harm, the social isolation of the child can be ensured.
Object aggression: Hitting or throwing objects, possibly to communicate or to satisfy a need for sensory input. This type of aggression can be an outlet for frustration or a means to acquire some sensory input that is calming or stimulating.
Potential Triggers for Hitting:
Sensory overload or lack of stimulation:
Many children with autism differ in sensory processing, for example, by being particularly sensitive to specific sounds or lights, or certain sensations of touch or other areas. When a child finds himself overwhelmed by the sensory input, hitting seems to be one of his ways of handling the information. On the other hand, when they are underestimated, hitting will provide the stimulation they need.
Difficulty communicating needs or wants:
Communication is the biggest problem in autism. The inability to communicate their needs or wants leads individuals to hit others to attract attention or to express their frustration.
Frustration with tasks or social situations:
To people with autism, things that would seem easy to a neurotypical person are very challenging. They can lash out at striking when they cannot understand something they are doing or feel misunderstood in a social situation.
Regularity changes or unexpected occurrences:
For many people with autism spectrum disorder, regularity is key, and predictability is of utmost importance. Any sudden change or unforeseen circumstance can be too much to handle, which is why people may strike to release their anguish.
Physical discomfort and suffering:
At times, hitting may be the outcome of someone’s inability to communicate his or her physical pain or ache.
Developing effective solutions to help people with autism and reduce striking behaviors requires an understanding of these triggers.
The Role of Laughing in Autism
This is the same for people’s behaviors with autism while they laugh. Laughing is an emotion, thus a complex reaction to what people have socially interacted with, stimulated from themselves, or one’s senses.
Reasons for Laughing:
Sensory Reactions: A person with autism may laugh in response to sensory stimulation. They will at times giggle over specific noises, textures, or patterns in images that induce a sensory reaction. This might involve watching objects swirl in their eyes or giggling at the sound of crinkling paper.
Self-Stimulation: Laughing is an action of autistic people, controlling the emotive experience and sensations, and, on that score, also a form of self-stimulation. This particular type of laughter is simply known as “stimming,” by which it helps to relieve individuals.
Humor Processing: Although certain incidents might not amuse certain autistic people, some would find it amusing. They might have their way of being funny and laughing at something that arouses them or makes them smile. For instance, they could find laughter in certain patterns or sequences of things that no other person would laugh at, including some situations that people should not laugh at.
Social Disconnect: Possibly, inappropriate laughter is a manifestation of the inability to perceive appropriate emotional responses and conventions in social situations. Perhaps, this can be pretty tough in social situations where everyone may misinterpret their laughter.
Why Hitting and Laughing May Be a Form of Communication
For most children with autism, conventional methods of communication are very difficult to apply. Behaviors like hitting and laughing become other ways of communicating their emotions, needs, and responses to their surroundings.
Communication challenges.
This will present autistic children with difficulty in expressing emotions in words. They may find ways to express themselves through physical behavior, such as hitting or laughing. For instance, they may hit themselves when they feel frustrated or laugh when they feel anxious.
Seeking Attention:
Children may employ hitting and laughing as an attention-seeking behavior if they are not able to articulate their demands to peers or carers in other ways. This may be the case particularly when the young children in question are unable to express themselves verbally.
Coping Mechanisms:
These actions can also be coping mechanisms in trying to manage overwhelming emotional stress or sensory stimulation. For instance, laughing may help to ease tension, while punching may help reestablish control in a disordered environment.
Strategies for Managing Hitting and Laughing Behaviors
Understanding the reasons behind autism, hitting, and laughing behaviors will help in managing them better. Here are some strategies that can be employed:
Observe and Identify Triggers:
Pay attention to the circumstances at the time of the hit and laugh. This allows the identification of specific triggers that can be related to environmental stimuli, situational ones, or even sensory-related. Keeping a behavior diary would help you monitor trends and identify possible triggers.
Provide Alternative Communication:
Give your child other avenues to express his feelings and needs. Introduce visual supports such as picture cards or communication devices. Teach them to sign language or use an application as a communication tool.
Provide a sensory-friendly environment:
Together with some sensory help that can be a noise-canceling headset or a fidget toy to help your child overcompensate in behaviors of hitting, laughing, and other signs of sensory overload. Helping him receive his regular needs for sensory breaks helps eliminate all these kinds of activities throughout the day as well.
Instruct Social Skills:
Teach social skills explicitly to enable the child to learn to speak with others and communicate properly. Role plays as well as practicing good responses in various social settings might also help your child. Social expectations and conventions can also be taught using visual timetables and social stories.
Seek professional help:
Behavioral experts, occupational therapists, and speech therapists can all provide further strategies and resources specific to your child’s needs. They can help identify the underlying causes of the child’s laughing and hitting behaviors and design an intervention plan.
Put Positive Reinforcement into Practice:
Reward acceptable behavior with positive reinforcement. Use praise and rewards when your child exhibits acceptable social behaviors or alternative forms of communication. This tends to lessen behaviors over time, such as laughing and punching.
Establish a Routine Schedule:
A daily routine schedule will help reduce anxiety and prevent behavior such as hitting and laughing. An autistic individual will feel a sense of control over the environment if routines are predictable and give a feeling of security.
Use Visual Supports:
Visual supports include social stories, visual calendars, and visual clues, which can be used to explain expectations and provide a map of the environment for those with autism. These tools are extremely helpful in reducing anxiety and preventing behaviors such as hitting and laughing.
Practice mindfulness and relaxation techniques:
Teach your child mindfulness or relaxation techniques such as yoga, progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, etc. This can help alleviate stress on his part so that less likely to be hitting, or laughing either. And it can always be incorporated into the normal daily habits of a person.
Fostering Understanding and Support for Autism
For the caregiver, educator, or professional working with individuals with an autism spectrum disorder, knowing why these children are hitting and laughing is important. Being able to recognize this behavior as a form of communication and dealing with its source will allow us to provide more effective support strategies that can help improve their quality of life. Being patient and empathetic with these children and giving them proper interventions can help the child handle his unique challenges.
With these strategies and professional support when needed, caregivers and educators can create a supportive and understanding environment for the individual with autism. This approach reduces hitting and laughing behaviors and promotes overall well-being and development.
References
https://wohum.org/hitting-and-laughing-in-autistic-children/
