Good books for disciplining school aged children with autism

[Serenity Now]

I'd like to get 2 or 3 books about disciplining a child with autism. I have a Kindergarten boy with autism. He is verbal, potty trained, but has some difficult behaviors. He responds well to rewards, which does increase "good" behaviors, but it is not changing maladaptive behaviors. Verbal redirection or explaining what he should or should not do has no effect. Processing verbal instructions is a weakness he has. He does not understand cause and effect very well, either. For instance, if he hits the dog with a toy, and we take the toy, or try putting him in time out, he doesn't understand at all what is going on. He is so much in his own world, that from his perspective the punishment is coming out of left field for no reason. We do not physically punish. With our other kids we loosely follow Love and Logic, but this does not seem to have any effect on him. 

So, anyway, we are looking for effective gentle discipline that will teach him appropriate behavior in a way that he can learn. He is very bright, but has a lot of trouble with retention and recall. I don't fully understand the way he learns. Repetitive learning seems to keep him from being able to generalize. He just memorizes it, but doesn't seem to be able to use the information, and anything that is verbal or language based is not processed easily by him. 

[bonamarq]

Hi

I work as a positive behavior support specialist serving folks with ASD's - prior to that I was a parent educator... I still recommend the same books for my folks with kids on the spectrum - Raising your spirited child, Playful Parenting and Kids are Worth It are some of my favs - To relate the info to your kiddo, keep in mind his developmental level, not his real age and like most with an ASD, VISUALS work better then verbal directions or commands...

Time outs rarely work (I'm not a fan of them for anyone) if they are designed as a punishment - they are fantastic strategies as a means of taking a break, cooling down etc (often described as a time in)

The scenario you described sounds like a grab for attention - kids on the spectrum (like NT) do this often and 9/10 the time out is actually reinforcing the behavior because he gets the attention he seeks (especially, as typcially is the case, you must engage with him repeatedly to 'keep him in time out' .  - To really change his behavior you have to find out the function (purpose) of his behavior and then figure out a way to either get that need met more appropriately either by teaching a new skill or changing the environment...

Search on line for something called a Motivational Assessment survey - if you can't find it pm me and I'll send you a pdf - it's a simple way to get a general idea of the function  - basically all behavior is a means of avoiding or accessing something - attention, tangible things or sensory experiences.... when you figure that out it's easier to come up with a way to fix it....

Goo luck

[KimPM]

If he can read, can you write down a short list of "House Rules" and post it at his eye level.  This is what we have done, as it seems that what our DS reads he retains, while what we tell him is like trying to communicate with a toddler - it goes in one ear and out the other.  Our rules focus on the positive, such as "Love the kitty: - pet her, -brush her, - play with her" because he sometimes chases her or hits her or throws things at her.  It's not perfect, but I think at least he "gets" what he's supposed to be doing, whereas before the rules were posted I'm not sure he quite "got it".