Discipline ideas for Autistic 5 year old.

[MarniePaysley]

My 5 year old DS is Autistic and about 80% non verbal and his behaviour is really starting to get out of hand. It's not an issue of not understand my requests because he does everything DH asks him to do. DH has always been strict with him which is why he listens to him.

I've tried being strict, e.g following through on threats, taking away toys, constantly returning him to the naughty step but it has no effect on him.

He's not afraid of me like he is of DH and I'm now at the end of my rope, I can't even take him out on my own because he'll try and run into the road, he won't listen to a word I say, so I have to physically carry him, but all DH has to do is give him a look and he'll calmly walk along side us.

I want to get a grip on his behaviour whilst he's still young but I'm all out of ideas, does anyone know of anything I can try with him?

Apart from the fact that I am not sure why your son would be afraid of your Dp I think you may need to look outside of the strategies used for managing behaviour of neurotypical children!

Your sons social and emotional development is likely to be delayed by at least a thrid of his chronological age so if he is 5 then he is likely to be operating in a similar way to a 3 yr old.

Think of you expectations in terms of his developmental levels and not his actual age.

I would try to begin with teaching him the stop and I would be using lots of rewards to do this.

All people with autism are different though and this is only my opinion!

Good luck

@ineedmorepatience Afraid was probably the wrong word, dislike is more appropriate. DH treats DS like a normal child and will put him on the naughty step for the smallest issue but this means that DS listens to everything DH says without any problems but he dislikes spending anytime with DH that approach doesn't work for me.

I've tried rewards in the past with little luck but now that he's older, I might try it again.
Thanks for replying and for the good luck, I will need it.