Disinhibited behaviour ASD child

[Redwineandcheeseplease01]

DS 4yrs old diagnosed ASD, starting mainstream primary in September. Has an EHCP and 1:1. His behaviour is so disinhibited and I swear it’s getting worse by the day. It’s like whack a mole. Every time I think we’ve worked through one challenge another one pops up to stress me out. The latest is he keeps taking his pants off and running around naked from the waist down. Finds it hilarious. Also has overheard a swear word and keeps perseverating on it, just keeps shouting it at random.
I’m so stressed worrying he will be doing both of these behaviours when he starts school and that school will either say he can’t stay or the other kids will target him if he’s running around with his bum out. I don’t know what to do and I just don’t have any more fight left in me. Please someone who has experienced the same or similar, are you able to advise how on earth I stop this behaviour? Thankyou x

Try not to panic.

Have you tried different types of underwear and seamless and seamfree underwear? Have you tried no underwear and just shorts/trousers? You could also try a bodysuit.

Has DS had an OT assessment? Does the EHCP include sensory OT provision?

For many, ignoring the swearing works best because drawing attention results in an increase.

The school can’t just say DS can’t stay.

Hi, thanks for your reply, I don’t think it’s anything to do with the actual underwear, he likes his pants and doesn’t object to getting dressed in the morning, I think he just enjoys being naked and also finds it funny as he keeps wiggling his bum around dancing saying look at me. He has had an OT assessment as part of the EHCP assessment and they will visit him at school sporadically to see if there’s anything identified he needs help with once there.
he’s starting school on a reduced timetable and I’m so worried this will be never ending if his behaviour continues the way it has for the last couple of months, meanwhile he’s missing school and any chance of making friends as all his classmates settle in 😢

When was the EHCP finalised? Are you still within the appeal window? The OT visiting sporadically is not enough.

If you want DS to attend school full time (or not full time but more than the reduced timetable proposed) he can. You have the right to send him full time from the start unless the school formally suspend. The school should also know part time timetables should not be used to manage behaviour. If the school or LA is saying otherwise they are lying and it would be an unlawful informal exclusion. Was this school your preferred school?

I agree with him beginning school on a reduced timetable but my intention is that this is gradually increased so he is hopefully full time as soon as possible. Otherwise what was the point of me fighting so hard for an EHCP and a 1:1 😔
in your experience are they likely to suspend a 4yr old if he swears or takes his pants off? (If he has a 1:1 I’m hoping he won’t be able to)

You can send DS full time as soon as you want to. Or until DS is compulsory school age, you can also still send him part time for as little or as much as you want. And even if DS can’t attend school full time, the LA is still responsible for ensuring all the provision in F of the EHCP is received.

I wouldn’t expect the school to suspend a 4 year old with SEN in those situations. And as you say, with 1:1 DS shouldn’t be able to strip to naked before the intervention.

DS5 has just finished reception year and although still waiting for diagnosis and EHCP he has had 1:1 all year and lots of support.

School have been very tolerant of his behaviour and have only suspended him (once) for severe violence. Anything else he was taken somewhere else to regulate and calm down.

when he undressed they watched the NSPCC pants video. Swearing they told him wasn’t a “school word”. They were very calm.

most kids have accepted him as he is, just a few have found him too much and avoid him. But nobody has been nasty about his differences as far as I’m aware.

the trickiest thing has been him not being allowed to go to after school club due to staffing ratio & too many incidents. But that’s not something the school have to do so I’ve not fought it too hard.

When you say it's behaviour whack a mole - are you addressing the behaviours themselves or looking for an underlying cause? I understand that if you are only tackling the behaviour then you'll often get this, where the behaviour will stop but another behaviour will pop up to replace it because it's actually an expression of sensory overload/stress build up/their self-control getting depleted as it is "used up" by following rules, social obligations in general (it's not really that simple but it's an easier way to understand it).

That is not a criticism because looking for the underlying cause is not a simple thing.

OT could help, if you are able to ask specifically for that to be looked at - you would want to look at whether he does it more in certain environments than others, or around certain stimuli, or at a particular time. And whether there are other more subtle signs of what might be causing the build up leading to the behaviour - because this kind of thing is usually more of a "buckaroo" type model so it's not like you can easily point to one thing which has caused it as there will be multiple things over the day, sometimes over multiple days - and each individual cause e.g. a sound he's sensitive to, an itchy label, a teacher asking him to do something, feeling hungry, the sun shining on him from a window, those things might be fine for him to deal with one day when they are an "earlier" item on the buckaroo saddle, but too much for him to deal with on a day when he already has a lot on his saddle. You may be able to get the 1:1 support to observe what they think might be contributing as well if you can get them on board with the model.

Also a lot of schools these days have a space that children can go to (with their 1:1 if necessary) to get regulation breaks throughout the day which can help to "take things off the saddle".

Stuart Shanker's Self-Reg has been useful to me.