Spitting part 2


This week I am going to talk about spitting  that is deliberate.  This is a much harder thing to deal with (and much grosser!) because the child has learned that adults do not like being spat on, especially in the face.  Usually I see this behavior in a child with autism who is more impacted, but I have seen children who are very high such as those with Asperger Syndrome learn to spit on people.

A child learns to spit because:
1.  They got a great reaction! So it is fun to see the reaction again.
2.  They got out of doing an unfavored task.
3. They got the person to leave them alone.

So, if your child starts to spit on you, first thing is to not react to it.  I know this is very hard to do.  So if you are giving an instruction and your child spits on you, continue to give the instruction and try to ignore the spit.  Make sure the child finishes the unfavored task, then go clean up.  Spitting is a very hard thing to break, so it is going to take time, be consistent with the ignoring and follow through with the task, and make sure that everyone is reacting the same way. When the spitting no longer gets your child out of the task and nobody gives a reaction, then the spitting should start to go down (also make sure it isn't a sensory issue as I talked about in last weeks post).

Another thing you can do is to determine when your child is going to spit the most.  Maybe there is a certain task he really hates and so that is when the spitting begins.  If you can pinpoint these times, then be proactive and offer a reward for doing the activity.  For example, if your child hates getting ready for bed, then maybe he can play 10 minutes of Angry Birds on the i pad if he can get ready for bed.  Give lots of praise for "keeping mouth to self."

Please feel free to comment below!