Adults and children who generally experience severe challenging behavior are accustomed to attending treatment/therapy with trained professionals. Due to this ongoing crisis of social distancing, the trained professionals who normally would be helping these adults and children with their severe behavior are now unable to provide in-person services. Leading many families with a different home environment that is more challenging with a lack of assistance and guidance. Here are some tips to help manage severe challenging behavior in the home during this crisis.

• Safety First- if your child has a healthy and consistent behavior plan that can be effectively used in a home setting, make sure to continue to implementing that. If there are any problems, make sure to contact a professional, in order to maintain a safe environment.
• Proactive strategies that can be used to prevent severe behavior.

Reinforcers- make sure there are enough reinforcers throughout each week for your child. It is recommended to increase the frequency of the current reinforcement schedule.

Preferred Activities- This does not mean add things into your childs schedule. This means to change out maybe one of the activities that your child did not really like with a preferred activity while still maintaining variation.

Home Modifications- Consider rearranging some things throughout the house to create more space.

Create a safe/calm space.

• Safety strategies

Protective Equipment- this is a key component to increase the odds of keeping everyone safe, especially due to the many outbursts that could occur during this time.

Personal Apparel- Put thought into what you wear. Try to avoid wearing jewelry, clothing or anything that may have loose or hanging pieces that could be easily grabbed.

Safety Plan- Your family as a whole should create a well organized safety plan that outlines the steps that everyone can follow in case of any behavioral outburst. (Autism New Jersey)

Susie Bean Gives