By Martha Gabler
You can help your child calm down!
This is actually fun to do. I found that one way to help my son with autism calm down was to reward him for breathing. You heard that right: I reward my child for breathing. I’ll show you how this works as part of a calm-down technique.
You can try it too, and when your friends are sitting around talking about the latest lame brain parenting ideas, you can tell them about this one. And, before slap their foreheads and moan that this idea has to be the ultimate candidate for the Lame Brain Parenting Hall of Fame, tell them the reason.
On the surface, the idea of rewarding a kid for breathing seems preposterous. But let’s look at how important breathing is. Descriptions of breathing tell us a great deal about the emotional state of a person, for example: panicky breaths, labored breathing, gasping for air, or holding one’s breath with suspense. A sigh can be a sigh of relief, a sigh of grief, or a sigh of resignation.
And what do people who attend meditation and yoga classes learn to do? They learn to control and regulate their breathing to achieve a calm emotional state and reduce stress.
Kids with autism often agitated
Now, let’s look at our kids with autism. Our kids experience neurological and sensory feelings that we do not experience and that we can neither comprehend nor relate to. We know our kids experience sound, light, and movement in a different way, and that these sensory issues can create problems for them. We also know our kids with autism can be quickly overwhelmed by the combination of sensory issues and performance demands, with the result that they become angry and agitated.
How to calm him down?
So what do you do when you have a child who is upset, agitated, screaming, angry and cannot calm himself down? One day when my son had such an episode, I immediately started marking and reinforcing the following physical movements to help him calm down: Quiet Mouth (or Appropriate Vocalization), Hands Still, and Feet Still. When you “mark” a behavior, you press on a clicker-like device the instant the child performs the movement, and then immediately follow-up with a treat of the child’s liking (the reinforcer).
We were making good progress and he was calming down nicely when I noticed that the muscles in his throat were pulsing, and that he had a lot of rapid, irregular breathing. At that point, the idea popped into my head to try marking and reinforcing him for breathing! Every time he exhaled, I marked and reinforced. To my surprise, this worked very well.
The more I marked and reinforced exhaling, the more he breathed. The more he breathed, the calmer he became. There was an unexpected bonus: not only did he calm down, but I calmed down too. My breathing became more regular, and after about eight or nine minutes, we were both happily and calmly breathing and no one was upset anymore.
In the context of autism, marking and reinforcing a child for exhaling during a period of tension or agitation can be a good idea. A lame brain idea? Not at all. Maybe it will make it into the Great Ideas Parenting Hall of Fame.
Review of tag points to achieve calm
Quiet Mouth
Appropriate Vocalization
Hand(s) still
Foot (feet) still
Exhales
What is TAGteach?
TAGteach stands for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance. TAGteach is a teaching and communication method based on the scientific principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).
TAGteach enables extremely precise positive reinforcement of behavior by using an acoustical signal to “mark” the behavior – at the precise moment the child performs the behavior! The acoustical signal is a short, sharp sound made by a handheld device (the “tagger”). When the child performs the correct action, the parent/instructor immediately presses the button on the tagger and hands over a treat (candy, treat, token, praise, social recognition, or money) as a reinforcer.
With TAGteach, it is easy to reinforce behaviors precisely and quickly. The immediate, accurate feedback and positive reinforcement result in the child performing the correct action more often, and for longer periods of time. With immediate feedback and learning tasks broken down into small steps, children can learn many new skills with TAGteach — at their own pace.
Learn More About Martha and TAGteach
With TAGteach, it is easy to reinforce behaviors precisely and quickly. The immediate, accurate feedback and positive reinforcement result in the child performing the correct action more often, and for longer periods of time. With immediate feedback and learning tasks broken down into small steps, children (and adults) can learn many new skills with TAGteach — at their own pace.
Learn More About Martha and TAGteach
With TAGteach, it is easy to reinforce behaviors precisely and quickly. The immediate, accurate feedback and positive reinforcement result in the child performing the correct action more often, and for longer periods of time. With immediate feedback and learning tasks broken down into small steps, children (and adults) can learn many new skills with TAGteach — at their own pace.
For more information visit the TAGteach website
For research on TAGteach, please see the TAGteach Reference List
Join the free TAGteach For Learning and Behavior Facebook group here
See Martha’s book about TAGteach for Autism or feel free to ask me a question (with no obligation).
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