I Cant Stop Screaming These Words Over Again

Originally posted Dec 15, 2014. Updated Jan 9, 2017, Updated Sep 21, 2018

Screaming, loud noises, verbal stimming

These are the sounds nosotros autism parents hear all likewise oftentimes in our homes.

They never seem to end.

They bulldoze us to distraction.

They can destroy the peace and repose of the family. Sometimes they tin destroy the family itself.

When my son was footling, he did a lot of screaming and verbal stimming. I discovered that with the positive behavioral method known every bit TAGteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) I was able to reduce these sounds, increase appropriate vocalizations and get some of that precious peace and placidity.

TAGteach uses positive reinforcement

TAGteach is based on the scientific discipline of Applied Beliefs Analysis (ABA) and uses positive reinforcement to build desired behaviors. In addition to the positive reinforcement, TAGteach adds an "effect marking" i.east., an acoustical signal to indicate to the child when he/she has performed a desired beliefs. The acoustical signal is generally a click sound, called a "tag" made by any type of clicker device, or better yet, a TAGteach tagger.  Later the "tag," y'all give a reinforcer to the child. Here'due south how I used this.

Step one: Tagger

The first step is to get a tagger, a small box-shaped device that makes a distinct click sound. If a tagger is not available, y'all can use another object: any toy clicker or similar noise-making device, a ballpoint pen, a flashlight with a clicker sound, or fifty-fifty a spoon to tap.

Step ii: Treats

The 2nd pace is to become a scattering of treats that your child enjoys and will find reinforcing. The treats can by anything: candy, money, tokens for special privileges, but they must be something the child really likes.

Stride 3: Observe and Expect for Quiet Mouth or Advisable Vocalisation

The third stride: sit back and lookout man your child. Reinforce Quiet Oral fissure (i.eastward., lips together,no sound). Whenever there is a divide second of Serenity Oral cavity, immediately tag (fabricated a click-sound with the device) and hand over a treat. Every time the child'southward mouth is Quiet, tag (click) and treat. Soon there will be much more Quiet Mouth behavior.

When doing this it is important not to react to song stims or screaming. Don't look at the child, don't speak to him/her or explain. Stay quiet yourself and immediately tag and treat every bit shortly equally in that location is even a split second of Quiet Rima oris.

Please annotation, the purpose of this is non to mute the child. The purpose is to teach the skill of existence quiet in appropriate settings and to increment the range of sounds or words that the child can say. For this reason, be certain to tag and treat a child for any Appropriate Vocalizations/Advice. If he/she says a nice word, makes a comment, or emits any sound that could exist the basis of a discussion, then tag and reinforce that. The ultimate goal is to increase social and communication skills.

For all of us, at that place is a time to speak and a time to be still.

Here's a video that shows TAGteach in activity to at-home a child (Tink) who is overwrought considering she's hungry and now too agitated to eat. The parent watches for a brief moment of quiet mouth, tags and places a treat in a basin. At first she's too upset to eat them, only she knows they're there. Tink soon realizes that she can control the tag and she starts to calm downwardly, begins to eat the treats and somewhen (not shown) eats her dinner. You tin see her rapidly becoming more calm and looking at her parent during the 40 seconds of this video. The parents are very calm during this procedure, since they have something to focus on and this also helps the child to at-home herself.

Tink has developed in leaps and bounds because her parents utilize TAGteach and understand the scientific discipline of beliefs. Tink'southward parents were told not to expect her to walk or talk and she'south starting to practise both. Click here to follow Tink's journey with TAGteach.

The Calming Tag Points

A tag point is the beliefs that will upshot in a tag and reinforcement.

The calming tag points are five tag points that I come up back to fourth dimension and again because they are and so useful. The calming tag points are:

• Quiet Rima oris – The kid is silent
• Advisable Vocalization or Communication (words, signs, gestures, picture symbols, device) – The child communicates in his/her ain way
• Hands Down – Hands placed at side or in front of torso (not flailing about)
• Feet On Floor – Both feet affect the floor or footing
• Exhales – Child breathes out; you tin see shoulders/chest go downwards upon exhalation.

All of these are uncomplicated behaviors that a kid performs often, so there are lots of opportunities to tag and reinforce. Reinforcing these tag points brings virtually increased at-home and communicative behaviors in children with autism. Plus, the more reinforcement and success our children experience, the happier they are.

Employ Reactively — For Tantrums and Agitation

In the early years I used these tag points to calm my son down during tantrums. They were highly constructive in calming him down and helping him regain his sophistication. Best of all, after using TAGteach a few times in this fashion, his tantrums diminished dramatically.

Apply Pro-actively — For Calm and Individual Development

After my kid learned to be calm, I found myself coming back to these tag points over again and again. Why? I discovered that they were a great way to maintain his calm behavior and promote happiness and competence.

Once or twice a twenty-four hour period, I sit down with my son for v-x minutes and tag and reinforce the calming tag points. He enjoys these repose sessions very much, and the upshot is a trusting human relationship: he feels at-home, happy, and supported (and so do I).

If we are traveling or doing something unexpected, I tag and reinforce the calming tag points too. The reinforcement and familiarity keep him calm and collected; as a event, he handles challenging and unexpected situations very well and often displays new and amazingly competent behaviors. I think of this equally "pro-agile" tagging.

The Calming Tag Points – Always Available and Always Useful

For these reasons, I recommend that parents and professionals dealing with children with autism consider using the calming tag points as function of their behavior management repertoire. They work, they are like shooting fish in a barrel to observe, and the kid enjoys the success and reinforcement.

Tag sound is better than verbal "good job!"

TAGteach is a wonderful tool for working with children with autism for many reasons. It is a validated scientific method based on the science of Practical Behavior Analysis. It is effective. For the parents, it is piece of cake and low-toll (tagger devices cost about $one.50, and the treats are things you lot would already have around the house).

For the kid, it has numerous advantages: the tag (click) conspicuously marks for the child the behavior that will earn reinforcement. The tag tells the child, "YES, you did something good. Now you are getting a treat." The tag gets effectually the problem of using words with a child with autism: many times our kids can't understand words, and fifty-fifty if they understand, they tin can't comply with the asking.

Also, our words and voices carry emotional undertones which can be overwhelming for a child with autism. The tag gets effectually those problems and allows you to mark and reinforce constructive behaviors at the exact moment the kid performs them. Also, words take as well long. You tin tag and reinforce behaviors faster and more than ofttimes with a tagger than you lot can with words, and so y'all can build a desired beliefs faster and with less effort.

To summarize, the advantages of using a tag audio instead of voice (to say, "good job", for instance) are as follows:

1. It is articulate and has only 1 significant — Yes, that was right!
2. It is consequent — makes the exact same audio every fourth dimension.
3. It can be delivered with a loftier degree of precision — just takes a petty exercise!
4. It requires no processing past the language-processing part of the encephalon.
5. Information technology conveys no emotional nuances.

You are an expert observer of your child

Every autism parent I've always met is an incredibly observant, detailed observer of their child's behaviors. Every autism parent I've ever met has told me of those cute fleeting moments when their child did something actually great. Armed with a tagger, the separate second you encounter one of those wonderful moments, yous can tag and treat, and thus reinforce that micro-2d of cracking Centre Contact, Interaction, Phonation or Quiet Oral fissure. When you reinforce a behavior, it will happen once more.

Will you be treating your child like a canis familiaris if you use TAGteach?

Many commenters on this mail service have suggested that it's not appropriate to apply TAGteach since you volition be treating your child "similar a dog." TAGteach is based on the same science as the popular and effective clicker training method used with dogs and many other species. Because it's based on sound science that has been perfected through testing with animals (just like drugs are), TAGteach works with anybody. Maybe yous'd prefer to teach your child like an elite athlete or an orthopedic surgeon? TAGteach is used successfully with both these groups and with many more. TAGteach began exterior the piece of work of autism, with sports, and has spread to many disciplines. Then, no, you lot will not be treating your kid like a dog, you volition be treating your kid with respect, kindness and a with a view to building skills that volition help them to self-calm and develop functional skills — skills that will make life better for everyone in the family. Click here to read a more detailed explanation of why you will not be treating your child like a dog.

Beware the extinction burst — expect it out!

IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE: Delight remember, whenever you lot start using positive reinforcement to increment a behavior, y'all are changing the child'due south environment, and he/she may have a reaction to that change. Frequently the reaction is an increase in the undesired behavior (in this case, vocal stims and disruptive noises). This well-documented miracle is called an "extinction burst," and the simply way to handle it is just to wait it out.

And then, if y'all see an uptick in the unwanted behavior, don't panic. Just wait information technology out. The undesired beliefs will decrease fairly speedily as the extinction flare-up winds downward, and so the desired behavior volition increase.  With time and practice, your child will be able to sit quietly in the car, dining room and classroom and vocalize appropriately in a multifariousness of settings.

More than Information

For more information, delight see these links:

• What is a tag betoken?
• The Exhales tag point
• Pro-active tagging
• Building a trusting human relationship with positive reinforcement

Read the Comments!

Delight read the comments to this post where Martha gives more specific advice to parents on how to apply positive reinforcement in their specific state of affairs to give more peace to their child and family.

Run across Martha in Boston – Sep 29-30, 2019

Join Martha in Boston for a TAGteach Avant-garde Workshop. Y'all can prepare using free online resources before the workshop if you lot are not quite gear up for the advanced material. Click for more data if you lot're an ABA practitioner or parent.

Free Video Series

Exist sure to watch my free video series for autism parents and professionals that explains exactly how to use TAGteach to teach functional skills to children with autism. This is essential information.

What is TAGteach?

TAGteach stands for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance. TAGteach is a teaching and communication method based on the scientific principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).

TAGteach enables extremely precise positive reinforcement of behavior by using an acoustical signal to "mark" the behavior – at the precise moment the child performs the beliefs! The acoustical indicate is a brusque, abrupt sound made by a handheld device (the "tagger"). When the child performs the correct action, the parent/instructor immediately presses the button on the tagger and hands over a care for (candy, care for, token, praise, social recognition, or money) as a reinforcer.

With TAGteach, information technology is like shooting fish in a barrel to reinforce behaviors precisely and quickly. The immediate, accurate feedback and positive reinforcement result in the kid performing the correct action more than frequently, and for longer periods of time. With firsthand feedback and learning tasks broken downwards into small steps, children (and adults) can larn many new skills with TAGteach — at their own stride.

For more information visit the TAGteach website

For research on TAGteach, please see the TAGteach Reference List

Join the costless TAGteach For Learning and Beliefs Facebook grouping here

TAGteach taggers are available here.

Meet Martha's book near TAGteach for Autism or feel free to ask me a question (with no obligation).

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Article adapted from Affiliate Two of Chaos to At-home: Discovering Solutions to the Everyday Problems of Living with Autism, Copyright 2013 past Martha Gabler

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