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Head banging help needed please?

4 replies

mel1981 · 03/09/2010 14:10

My Ds 15months is still under diagnosis main problems are severe GDD & micrcephaly.
These last few weeks hes started banging his head back on things sometimes quite violently. Asked proffessionals & all I got was take him out of that situation or we will change his highchair (currentlty one with a head rest)& get it stopped before it becomes a habit. But hes started doing it during eating, or whatever he is sitting in (he cant sit unaided, crawl or walk yet) with or without head rest.
It does it constantly throughout the day and I dont know what else I can do to stop him.
Please can anyone help? ideas? anything!

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staryeyed · 03/09/2010 14:57

Ds1 (5,ASD) has gone through stages of this. Its a bit simplistic but ignoring it has worked for us.It hasnt stopped it completely but has reduced the frequency and length of time he does it. I think the cause with DS is possibly sensory so until we get to the route of it Im not sure if it will stop. Does he do it hat certain times of day?- DS1 will often do it if he is tired. DS2 16months (NT I think) also does it sometimes now but we use the same approach and it seems to be working.

sickofsocalledexperts · 03/09/2010 15:03

My boy did this, and a couple of times he did it on people, backwards, to the extent that I thought he would break their nose (luckily, he didn't).

There are two schools of thought - one, is that you just remove him from the situation which makes him headbang ,eg change high chair, as you are doing, but first check it isn't because he has a headache (my boy was non verbal, so the only way I cculd check was by giving him calpol, then seeing an hour later whether he headbanged in same situation or whether it made him better).

The second school of thought, which is mine, is that at 15 months you can still change his habitual behaviours, and you should therefore gently but firmly physically stop him every single time he headbangss, with a firm "no". I mean literally every time, consistency being the key. Even if you have to hold his head for 20 mins, with him wailing to let him headbang. Eventually, it becomes so annoying to him that you are spoiling whatever feedback he is getting from headbanging, that he works out the behaviour isn't worth pursuing any more as it gets him the same, irritating result each time.

I did have some heated debates with my boy's ABA tutors, who at some stages said I should ignore the headbanging as it was possibly just attention-seeking. But having seen him bang his head once on a concrete floor, I wasn't going to let it continue and didn't got for the ignoring idea.

My advice, fwiw, is tackle it now, tackle it hard, even if stopping it every time drives you insane for a few weeks. It will be WELL worth it in the end. My boy doesn't head bang any more. Good luck!

HelensMelons · 03/09/2010 17:30

My Ds2 (asd/adhd) was a head banger - however, he had severe speech and language difficulties so with hindsight it was probably total frustration - in his case anyway.

I'm not suggesting that your ds has speech probs btw!

We ignored it, tried to remove him from situation if we felt that it was the cause, tried to anticipate it and prevent him from doing it. On reflection I don't feel that it was connected to him not getting his own way because he was and is an amiable wee fella.

I think there have been other threads about head banging over the years so you could do a search and see if anything comes up - I think someone at some point did suggest some sort of bicycle helmet or something like that to protect the head because it was so frequentx

mel1981 · 03/09/2010 20:14

Thanks for all your replies.
staryeyed my Ds has sensory issues too OT thought that he just liked the feeling- not that I can understand what there is to like bout banging your head! He doesnt seem to do it at certain times-atm he just seems to do it all the time. But worth looking out for a common factor.
sickofsocalledexperts my Ds is still non verbal so would be hard to tell if its something like a headache (although atm hes on calpol a bit as he is teething.) I do say a firm 'no' but im not sure if he understands- he usually carries on. He does the cute bottom lip tremble if I raise my voice a bit even if its to one of his brothers though.
OUCH to your ds banging his head on concerete! I dont think its an attention thing either TBH as he generally has my attention when he does it anyway.
helensmelons thanks will look into the other threads on it too.

A few ideas to try so a big thank you Smile

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