Cover -- Encouraging Appropriate Behavior for Children on the Autism Spectrum: Frequently Asked Questions -- Contents -- INTRODUCTION -- Part 1: Behavioral Theory and Application -- 1. Maladaptive behaviors: where do they come from? -- 2. How do I know the cause of a specific behavior? Or what is a functional analysis? -- 3. How do I know when it is right to try to change my child's behavior? -- 4. Do time-outs really work? -- 5. I find that I am constantly struggling with my child (diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) in time-outs and threatening him with punishments. Although this seems to work, is there another way to keep his behavior under control? -- 6. My child acts out for attention. How can I stop his behavior when the behavior requires the attention I give it? -- 7. How can I avoid unwanted behaviors before they spiral out of control and need intervention? -- 8. How much should I push my child to learn new things and new ways of behaving before I am pushing too hard? -- Part 2: Encouraging Independence and Teaching Self-help Skills -- 9. How do I find the fine line between helping my developmentally delayed child with daily living skills and holding him back by helping him too much? -- 10. How do I get my daughter to sleep in her own bed? -- 11. How can we get our daughter to sleep past 4:00 A.M.? -- 12. My daughter,who was recently diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder, refuses to get dressed in the morning. This refusal is constantly making her late for school. I am tired of fighting with her.What else can I do? -- 13. My child refuses to get dressed by himself. He is now nine years old, and I no longer feel it appropriate for me to have to dress him when he is capable of doing so.How can I coax him to dress himself in the morning?.

14. Which should I work on first: food-selectivity or toilet-training? -- 15. Is there a way for me to get my child to eat green foods? -- 16. My son is a fairly good eater, so why does he return home from school every day with his lunch almost untouched? -- 17. How can I get my six-year-old to use his fork? -- 18. If my son does not mind, or even notice,when he is wet, how can I toilet-train him? -- 19. My daughter has been toilet-trained for two years but is still in a pull-up at night. She wakes up wet every day. How do I help her through this last step of toilet-training? -- 20. My child is fine in underwear all day at school but has an accident every day as soon as he gets home.Why does he do this and how can I stop it? -- 21. My daughter will happily go to the bathroom when taken but does not request it on her own. I have been taking her to the bathroom four to five times a day, but if I miss taking her just once, she has an accident. How can I get her to use the bathroom without being prompted? -- 22. My son is toilet-trained, but I always have to remind him to pull his pants up, flush, and wash his hands. How can I get him to be more independent? -- 23. My son is scared of the shower. How can I get him to wash? -- 24. My 12-year-old son still needs help in the shower. How can I help him gain more independence? -- 25. My autistic daughter is at the age when she will soon get her period. How do I teach her about caring for herself? -- 26. How do I help my son, who has Asperger's syndrome, through puberty? -- 27. How can I improve my child's gross motor skills? -- 28. What more can I do at home to help my child work on fine motor skills? -- Part 3: Encouraging Healthy Communication -- 29. What are the precise linguistic obstacles that my child is facing due to his disorder?.

30. My son's language is so atypical, how do I know what aspect of language to focus on teaching him first? -- 31. My son is constantly repeating everything we say. He even repeats things he hears on television. Peers think he is funny, but I worry about this behavior.How can I expand his expressive vocabulary? -- 32. My daughter has an advanced vocabulary yet is unable to use her words to ask for food when she is hungry. Instead, I have to guess what she wants while she is crying on the kitchen floor. How can I teach her to express her needs in words? -- 33. My son's tongue is constantly sticking out of his mouth. What can I do to help him remember to keep it in? -- 34. My child makes himself throw up when he is upset.How can I break this messy, unpleasant, and dangerous habit? -- 35. Why doesn't my daughter follow with her eyes when I point to something that I wish her to see? -- 36. How can I teach our son to respond to his name? -- 37. How can I teach my daughter the proper use of pronouns? -- 38. My child has wonderful communication skills, but what can we do to increase his eye contact? -- 39. My son has Asperger's syndrome. He communicates nicely but speaks with few and unusual facial expressions.Can proper facial expressions during conversation be taught? -- 40. My child's speech has very little intonation, making him difficult to follow. Is there any way to show him how to vary his tone appropriately during conversation? -- 41. My child has been examined medically, and although nothing has been found to prevent him from talking, to meet him you would think that he is mute. Is there any way to get him to learn how to talk? -- 42. Is there a way to teach the art of chit-chat? -- 43. Our daughter speaks clearly when she is addressed, but is there any way that I can teach her to initiate a conversation?.

Part 4: Encouraging Appropriate Activities and Interests -- 44. My son always seems very distant. How can I get him more involved? -- 45. I cannot get my child to sit in a chair.His inability to sit still is affecting him at mealtime, during playtime, and at preschool. Aside from giving him medication, what can I do? -- 46. How can I encourage my child to show interest in playing? -- 47. My son spends his free time lining up objects and toys.How can I get him to play more appropriately? -- 48. My son spins the wheels of his toy cars. How can I encourage him to play with the cars instead? -- 49. My son has trouble following the rules of games. How can we teach him some simple games he can play with the family? -- 50. My son systematically takes every book out of our bookcase and flips through each so quickly that I barely manage to read one sentence to him out loud. How can I make reading more educational? -- 51. The neighbors are complaining about the noise coming from my apartment, but I have two very energetic, autistic sons.What is the best way for me to handle this situation? -- 52. We have a four-bedroom house with a nice den and playroom, yet my son refuses to leave my side, opting to sit on the kitchen floor if I am cooking or run around the table if I am sitting at it paying bills. I would love for him to make use of the other rooms in the house and play, even if I am not sitting by his side.What should I do? -- 53. My son goes from room to room gathering up all of his toys and carrying them around the house with him.He needs to take approximately ten of his small belongings with him wherever we go.How can I convince him to leave some of his things behind? -- 54. My son is only interested in trains. How can I get him to play with any other toy or talk about any other subject? -- Part 5: Reducing Unwanted and Self-stimulatory Behavior.

55. How can I stop my son from continually spinning? -- 56. How can I keep my daughter from constantly covering her eyes? -- 57. Our daughter stares into space for long periods of time. How can I increase her ability to focus? -- 58. My child is constantly flicking her fingers in front of her eyes and/or flapping her arms. How can I stop this inappropriate behavior? -- 59. The teachers at school claim that my daughter engages in finger-flicking self-stimulatory behavior a lot, but I am yet to see this behavior at home. I am very bothered by this discrepancy.How should I respond? -- 60. My child is obsessed with opening and closing doors and cupboards. How can I stop this odd behavior? -- 61. My daughter is obsessed with mirrors. She will stand in front of the mirror for hours, examining her hands, putting her face up close to the mirror, and repeatedly turning her head to the side to peek at herself out of the corner of her eye. Should I encourage or discourage her mirror-gazing? -- 62. My son obsessively touches shoes - his own, his friends', his teachers', and even those belonging to strangers on the street.How can I get him to stop this odd and embarrassing behavior? -- 63. My daughter flicks the lights on and off in every room in the house. It is not so frequent that it interferes with her day, yet it is very odd behavior. Is there anything I can do about it? -- 64. My child spits. This is a very unpleasant and embarrassing habit, and people, including family members, avoid being around him because of it. What can I do? -- 65. I have a teenage child who bites. Sometimes he even bites himself.How can I stop him from hurting himself and others? -- 66. My son clenches his jaw in what looks like a grimace. In addition to being unpleasant to look at, this behavior is causing harm to his mouth and jaw. How can I help him relax his bite?.

Part 6: Teaching Social Skills and Encouraging Appropriate Interaction.