My 3 year old son has just been diagnosed with autism and we are having major problems at home regarding his behaviour.He keeps pushing our 1 year old over for no reason, he will just walk past and just push her. When she cries he just keeps repeating baby cry or bash head.He will also grab hold of my 9 year old daughters hair and not let go, she will be screaming, but he won't let go. He also scratches people and grabs at the babies face. There deosn't seem to be a trigger and he is so unpredictable,we have to watch him constantly.Up until recently he has completely ignored her.
He also has frequent rages where he will scream, kick, head bang, throw everything in his path, he has to be strapped into his pushchair until calm but whilst there he has even ripped off wallpaper, eaten the foam in his stroller bumper bar, bitten himself etc
He will rage everytime he is told no or stopped from doing something, if something goes wrong, sensory overload, if he can't achieve something or express his needs , during transitions or if we change his routine or often there deosn't appear to be a trigger and we never find out.
We turn him to face us and say firmly stop or no smacking etc accompanied by the sign for stop and then he does time out in his stroller, but I am at a loss at what else to do. My daughters friend visited last week and my son suddenly attacked her.My baby has been hurt a number of times now and it is getting more urgent that this is dealt with quickly.
He does not however behave like this at nursery and they are shocked to hear that this is happening at home. At nursery he does not interact with the other children but will play alongside them.
Outside of structure his behaviour often becomes difficult and he will whine, cry and eventually start to become more destructive. He recieves one to one support once a week from the autism advisory service and works reallly well, however as soon as the session is over he starts to whine especially if his support worker deos not leave the house immediately. When I pick him up from nursery he will shriek loudly and run over to me flapping his hands and then start to whine/cry especially if we don't leave straight away, if they want to speak with me.
He deos have some speech around 100 words, lots of learnt phrases and some sentences, although his receptive language is quite poor and instructions have to be kept simple for him to understand. His assessment showed that he did not appear to recognise the emotions others or show empathy.Generally he seems happy always singing and thrives attention from adults, probably too much,he uses them like tools. he plays best /longest when he is engrossed in repetitive play and is left alone.
I do not know how much of this behaviour is due to autism or if somehow I have not been managing him correctly, he has plenty of attention at home, but I do not understand why he deos not behave like this at nursery.
Has anyone else experienced this with there child or have any advice to help me manage the situation please.
