Autism – Is he or isn’t he?

Though he hasn’t been diagnosed as autistic, to your eye, Marlon exhibits many classic symptoms. Without being sure, how do you manage his behaviour, asks Paul Dix...

Marlon likes routine, hates change and interprets life differently. He is a lovely child but needs careful management; in moments of desperate frustration he will attack wildly, scratching and biting anything in his way. His behaviour swings from the utterly predictable to the impossibly bizarre. In recent weeks your rotating seating plan has caused daily outbursts of extreme behaviour and in a class of 30, with no support, he is sucking up your time and energy.

Marlon has no intent to harm, but this does not wash with the parents of the injured and anxious. Mums and dads have complained bitterly that Marlon must be punished, isolated and excluded. They are openly challenging your classroom management and you are beginning to think they have a point. In the staffroom the looks of sympathy have given way to mutters of annoyance and you regularly find yourself having to explain Marlon’s defiance and unexpected violence. Unless you act quickly, you fear the staff will turn against you and the stern looks of senior leaders will translate into ‘quiet words’ and the inevitable ‘targets’ in awkward performance management meetings.

How do you respond?

* Punish

Enough is enough. Give the other parents and less enlightened colleagues their pound of flesh. Go down the punishment road and see if it holds the answer.

* Secret diagnosis

Assume Marlon is somewhere on the spectrum and treat him accordingly. Use the strategies that have worked with children with autism.

* Appeal to parents

Call in the parents (again) and demand they seek expert support and a diagnosis. Marlon needs more support in class than you are able to provide.

* Punish

The punishing doesn’t begin well. By lunchtime Marlon is curled up in the foetal position outside the head’s office, picking paint off the wall with steely determination. The punishments thrown at him have had no positive effect on his behaviour. To be fair, they have had no impact whatsoever. When you explain to Marlon that he may not see another breaktime until he starts shaving, he doesn’t blink. You begin to realise that your own break, lunch and after-school time may forever be accompanied by Marlon. The head, keen to support your attempts to bring Marlon into line, makes stern and serious noises, but Marlon is much more interested in the photos of her family on the desk than accepting a telling off with grace. The arrival of the deputy, who bares his teeth and tries to play Mr Nasty, is futile at best and the pantomime of punishment ends with more threats, raised voices and Marlon commenting that he has really enjoyed meeting everybody and asking if they could do it all again tomorrow lunchtime. As you herd Marlon away to the segregation block (formerly the caretaker’s office), you know that your instinct was right. Punishment on Marlon is a weak and soggy strategy.

Talking behaviour

* Does Marlon deserve to be punished?

* Does harsher punishment have more chance of having an impact?

* Is it right to punish children for behaviours that emerge from their additional needs?

* Secret diagnosis

Marlon is not the only child you work with who struggles with transition and interpreting instructions accurately. You begin to introduce a visual timetable and clear routines for key moments of transition for all of the children. There is a great deal of discussion about how to present the routines and the children decide it would be better if they had photographs of themselves demonstrating each one. After seeking permission from parents, you create photo stories with the children that are laminated on tables and key areas of the classroom. In order to give Marlon a little more protection from the noise and general ‘business’ of the rest of the class, you bribe the site manager (Jack Daniels, obviously) into building screens onto three sides of a few desks. Spurred on by the thought of free booze and the outside chance he may get his office back, the site manager does a fantastic job. There are now four desks with curved screens, cork board on the inside. You introduce them to the children as your ‘quiet desks’ and allocate one to Marlon to see if he finds it useful. Marlon loves the screen and may have found his happy place. You invest time in teaching Marlon transition routines one to one and he soon takes control of his own mini visual timetable and routine checklists. Marlon begins to settle and incidents of violence reduce dramatically. You would still trade everything for a good TA, but now feel Marlon has turned a corner.

Talking behaviour

* Is the extra time invested in Marlon now likely to pay off later?

* Could you extend the idea of screened desks for the whole class? What might the effect be?

* How can you prepare Marlon for unexpected changes to the school / classroom routine?

* Appeal to parents

You have taught enough children to suspect that Marlon might be on the autistic spectrum. His parents are similarly unique individuals with their own views on Marlon’s differences. They are educated, well read and well prepared. Although you attempt to steer the conversation they have their own agenda: Mum is appalled at the lack of support for Marlon; Dad will not countenance a referral to support services. The mention of autism sends him into a tirade of vitriol against the school, the system and your classroom management. The meeting deteriorates despite your best intentions. By the time Dad storms out, you wonder how Marlon has become the victim in all of this and how you seem to be promising to ‘try harder’ with him. You suspect a follow up letter to the head will provide further headaches and resolve not to invite the parents in again.

Talking behaviour

* How far should you go in trying to persuade parents to agree with your view?

* Is it your responsibility to point out that Marlon may exhibit some traits of autism?

* How can you mend the relationships with the parents now?

Which approach did you choose?

* Punishment addict

You can’t punish a child for having additional needs. It is cruel, utterly futile and perpetuates a damaging cycle. Marlon’s behaviour needs a more intelligent and empathetic approach. He is not behaving badly to annoy you or to intentionally hurt others; he is behaving badly because he doesn’t interpret your instructions as you think you are delivering them. You mustn’t be bullied into punishing a child just because other parents think that you should.

* Inclusion engineer

Doing everything possible not to humiliate Marlon is a worthy pursuit. You are still successfully communicating with the rest of the children, all that has changed in their eyes is your style. Many of the children who previously looked to you for their next instruction will take the opportunity to accept more responsibility for their own timekeeping and transitions. What was designed for Marlon’s benefit may steer other children towards more independence and less learned helplessness in the classroom. It is never going to be plain sailing, but with an inclusive attitude you can face problems positively and deal with them proactively.

* Amateur interpreter

Parents who refuse to accept help for their child may at first glance appear selfish and unreasonable, yet they have every right to make their own decisions. Leave diagnosis to the professionals. Instead, focus meetings on small steps and collaborative approaches that are manageable. Marlon’s behaviour will not be ‘solved’ by a diagnosis and you need to be able to work with the family and not against them. Although many of the traits Marlon displays are ones you recognise in children with autism, Marlon is Marlon – not a replica, not a stereotype.

About the author

Paul Dix is lead trainer at Pivotal Education. Hear his podcasts at pivotalpodcast.com. A new licensed trainer scheme allows every school to deliver Pivotal behaviour and safeguarding training (see more at pivotalcurriculum.com).