Autism Treatment – Behavior change and Autism part 2 of 2

This is part 2 of my 2 part series on behavioral changes in Autism and I will discuss other issues that can contribute.  When the behavior is occurring is something else to consider.  Are the behaviors happening before school in the mornings or after school in the afternoon? Or does the behavioral issue happen during therapy sessions or while at school?  Has their been a change that has occurred in your child’s daily routine?  I often have children who’ve developed behavioral issues as a result of a new child entering their classroom and them not getting a long with the new child or there being some sort of conflict between them. This can also happen with a change in therapist or change in teacher as well.

Changes in their routine can result in behavioral issues.  Have there been any dietary changes made recently?  Either removing foods that your child likes or trying to introduce new foods can contribute to issues with behavior.  Has there been a new supplement added?  Behavioral changes as a result of a new supplement being added is something I commonly see in children with Autism.  Adding supplements too quickly and not spacing them out every two or three days before adding in a new supplement is something that frequently happens.  So behavioral problems can be frequently caused by supplements.

So it really does require you to be a detective to determine what is causing the behavior issues.  And knowing how long the behavior has been occurring is important.  Has the behavior been occurring over the past few days, over the past few weeks?  It may be a situational problem rather than a biomedical one like I said before.  It could be the result of a change in therapy or school, etc.  So hopefully this provides you with some ideas to help you piece together what may be going on.

And if the issues are as a result of recently added supplements, what I suggest is to take a look at what has been added since the behavioral issues. And then I will usually recommend that you remove those supplements and see whether the behaviors disappear after three or four or five days.  And then if you want to reintroduce them, you can do so but one at a time.  You may even want to add them in at half doses and go slowly.  And that may be just what your child needs to be able to tolerate the new supplement program you are trying to implement.