21 month old scratching our faces during tantrums

[Hedger]

My 21 month old DS has started trying to scratch my and DH's face during tantrums. He has recently been diagnosed with autism and I was wondering if this is something which toddlers might go through this age or if it is more likely related to the autism?

He has only done it a couple of times - e.g. today when we carried him away from the shower, which he really wanted to play in. He is usually quite sweet and placid.

If anyone else has experienced any similar kind of aggression in their toddler, please let me know!

[Heyho111]

Scratching faces in anger is a normal toddler trait. However your son may need extra support to stop doing it. If he continues to scratch your face in anger then put some stratagies in place.
Cause and effect. You scratch my face something really boring happens. E.g you get put on the floor with no toys and I ignore you for a few minutes. This is not the naughty spot. You do not want appogies ext. it's to teach him that he does something the result is not what he wanted. So will stop doing it.
Red card or card with a Red Cross in it. This is to show him to stop. You say stop and show him the card. He is probably a visual learner so will respond to the card more than your words.
Do not show any emotion when he hurts you. He may not understand that you going red, making a pain noise or saying cross words to him is bad. He may not understand your reaction is negative but just see an interesting reaction. He will do it again as it's fun to see mummy go red.
His actions are not naughty. They are his way of communicating he is unhappy as he does not understand how else to do it.
You will need to be consistant and practice the stratagy constantly for quite a while to get it to work.
I hope that has helped a little.

[Hedger]

That's really good advice - thanks v. much!