Self Injurious Behavior

I have learned that it is common for children on the autism spectrum to exhibit some form of self-injurious behaviors. Self-injurious behaviors (SIBs) can include, but are certainly not limited to, head banging, head slapping, head butting, biting oneself, pinching oneself, etc. Sadly, Matthew is among that number. When Matthew was just a baby, not quite a year old, he would rock himself constantly when laying on his back. Now that was not a SIB, but I feel it was the beginnings of some following behaviors. When Matthew was in a toddler bed, he would wake up just enough at night to set himself up and hit his head into the wall, but it was if he was rocking, which was what I felt, a soothing action. He got to where he hit his head hard enough into the wall, that he actually busted the sheet rock. I then moved his bed to where only the head board was against the wall so he could not hurt himself in the night by hitting his head into the wall.

Matthew's SIB of choice these days is head slapping. It is one of the saddest things to see your child exhibit a behavior that is painful to himself. And just to keep this real and honest, it can actually be annoying at times. I know, that's awful, but I was to be honest as to my feelings of dealing with this continually. He has for years, seemed to need to "slap" his head when he rouses around at night, but "slap" is a little strong for that action. It was actually just a light "slap" that didn't really concern me too much because it did not seem hard enough to really hurt. I also found out that if I stopped him from "slapping" it would frustrate him and the hitting would just get harder as he became more agitated. However, the slapping has gotten increasingly more severe the last couple of years, and I know it hurts him. Most of the behavior is due to frustration when he doesn't get what he wants. (Like another piece of bologna or a visit to Grandma or Mamaw's houses.) He hits hard enough that it leaves big red places on the side of his face. We do try to prevent him from slapping himself, but sometimes it's just not possible. This has actually been one of my major concerns that I have voiced to professionals, and I honestly don't think they have a solution. When he was seen at the Weisskopf Center, the hitting was just increasing in intensity and I asked them about this. The psychologist's reply was that if it hurt, he would stop. She said she had never seen a kid really "hurt" themselves before. Well, I am no psychologist and I don't have a college degree, but I've got enough smarts about me to see plainly that my child hits himself hard enough to hurt.

There are different reasons for these different behaviors. Matthew originally started off with the rocking and then the light tapping of sorts for soothing and comfort, while I feel most of his behavior now is due to frustration. There are children that crave a certain sensation and have SIBs for that reason. It is completely unknown to me why someone would choose to ram their head into a concrete wall, but it has been known to happen. Matthew has hit his head into a hard wall before when agitated and it could easily be harmful to him. Thankfully, that is not something that he "craves" or does on a routine basis...it just happens on occasion.

It is my hope and prayer that Matthew's SIB does not get even more severe as he grows and gets stronger. It's just one of those "hard" things to deal with while parenting a child on the spectrum.