Page 24 - Coping With Students Challenging Behaviour

34. SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT
Offer activities for the child where the child both experiences success and learns something new. Achieving children thrive when others acknowledge their efforts and accomplishments. Children with special needs often don’t come as easily to accomplishments, for this reason, makes them a greater cause for celebration. After all, it’s the smaller, “quieter” successes in life that can add up to a lot, especially when it comes to the self-esteem of kids.
35. SELF-INJURIOUS BEHAVIOUR
Self-injurious behaviour is any behaviour that results in someone causing physical harm to themselves. Examples of this behaviour shown by people with severe learning disabilities include: hitting self, banging head or other parts of the body on hard surfaces, biting self, eating too little/too much, eye poking, Pica (eating inedible items), pulling nails, hair, ripping, tearing, picking skin.
Self-injurious behaviour is complex and must be addressed comprehensively, and not managed solely incident by incident. Key steps that should be considered and initiated prior to treatment are:
∗ Medical examination to rule out other causes and identify any potential medical reasons that may be causing the self- injurious behaviour such as: toothache, headache, stomach problems, dermatological issues, or digestive ailments.
∗ Protectionintheleastrestrictivemannerpossiblebeforeand during treatment, including: removing dangerous materials from the person’s environment and replacing them with safer tools and materials, replacing glass with plexiglass,
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