Kids with autism or signs of autism cry for many reasons and trying to figure out why they are crying can be tricky. Today’s blog is all about the reasons why kids might be crying and how you can help turn this behavior around. As a board-certified behavior analyst, I’ve been in many situations with kids crying. Once I went out to do an initial evaluation and the child cried during the entire session. We don’t want kids crying. It’s normal to ask, “why is my child or client with autism crying so much?”
To help answer that question, I like to use the analogy of me learning to fly a plane. When I start, I have no idea how to fly the plane. I get into the cockpit and there’s a bunch of levers all around me. Someone is trying to explain the levers and the hundreds or thousands of buttons and it’s going way over my head. I might start crying.
If the instructor keeps going with the instruction on the levers, I might start sobbing at that point. I might hyperventilate. I won’t fly a plane at that point because I’m so overwhelmed. Plus, I’m not learning anything about any of those levers. When kids with autism or signs of autism are crying, trying to continue with any demands or situation is just not going to work. The child or client who is crying is not going to be learning at the same time.
Teaching children with autism to indicate they’re in pain will help you rule out any medical issues when it comes to autism crying early on. It’s important to realize that some of these behaviors will need to be treated medically, not behaviorally.
But like with the analogy of the plane, sometimes the problem is related to behavior. On the plane, I was overwhelmed by the demands and I have very little reinforcement. Things were presented to me that were too technical. That kind crying is probably not pain. That kind of crying is basically my way of communication. Kids without fully conversational communication often cry because they don’t have the ability to tell you exactly what the problem is. They might even be talking at that point, but they can’t tell you what the problem is with their words. Crying is how they get your attention.
When they are hungry, newborn babies cry. It’s a reflex. Crying is our first form of communication. However, we eventually learn how to communicate in other ways. Looking back on the plane analogy, I was crying because the demands were too high and reinforcement was too low. Autism crying and tantrums might happen frequently if there is too high of a demand or too little reinforcement.
The first step to learning to tackle a problem behavior is always assessment. Figure out if the child is crying because of pain or because they are overwhelmed and lack communication. This is where we also evaluate if our demands are too high, and if our reinforcement is too low.
Then we need to make a plan. Part of that plan should be to spend 95% of our time preventing problem behavior, including crying. I have a simple paper calendar system to help keep track of crying and other problem behaviors. You can use it to stay on track. It really could help you start to turn things around.
If you have a child who’s crying, whining, or screaming and you don’t know how to help them, start with an assessment, make a plan, and use my calendar system. You can do this for children or clients with an autism diagnosis, kids who are showing signs of autism, or if they are typically developing as well.
