2. Why does it happen?
Most children without learning disabilities display lots of
challenging behaviour during the “terrible twos,” but
usually this doesn’t last because most 2-year olds develop
a range of communication and social skills which enable
them to get what they want and need more easily. Many
children with learning disabilities do not develop these
skills and are left with the same needs as other children
their age but are much less able to get them met.
Many cases of challenging behaviour appear to be
effective ways for a person with learning disability to
control what is going on around them.
3. What can be done?
There is no magic cure for challenging behaviour but there
is a great deal that can be done to prevent or reduce the
frequency of challenging behaviour.
Medical causes need to be ruled out, for example, the
person may be banging their head due to an ear infection
but have no way to communicate this.
4. What can be done?
Try to check things out for yourself. If you
change something does that stop the
behaviour? Can you teach the child to tell you
what they want in another way?
When safe to do so ignore the behaviour. If
it’s not safe respond as calmly and blandly as
possible to prevent the person from hurting
themselves further.
Develop the person’s communication skills
and give them choice and independence.
5. What can be done?
If the person is displaying serious challenging behaviour
ask for a “functional assessment” to try and understand
the reasons behind the behaviour. You can ask your GP or
social worker for a referral.
Challenging behaviour can be an emotional experience for
parents - you may feel very angry with the child or very
depressed about their behaviour. Don’t be ashamed of
this! Instead, talk about it with anyone who will listen and
understand.
6. Support withchallenging behaviour
Every individual regardless of where they live should have:
access to healthcare: it is important to treat any medical
conditions the person has, which may cause challenging
behaviour or make it worse
access to assessment and support to ensure their
behaviour is properly understood and supported
an advocate who knows how the system works and can
help access support.
Families should be able to access a range of support and
services to meet the needs of their family. Support should
be flexible and personalised to meet individual need.
7. What does goodsupport look like?
It’s based on good relationships and genuine partnership
between people with behaviour described as challenging,
their family members, and professional staff who are willing
to try new ways of working. It meets the needs of individuals
and families and enables families of people with severe
learning disabilities and challenging behaviour to live as
‘ordinary’ a life as possible.
8. Improvedlive style options
Long term
Enduring
Trans-disciplinary audit
Forward thinking
Capacity assessment
9. Areas of improvement
Diet
Health
Leisure
Self-advocacy
Sensory support
Skills and knowledge
10. Conclusion
This unit has been developed as an introduction to themes
and issues relating to challenging behaviour. We have
considered the nature of our relationships with the deaf
blind people we serve and the amount of control that we
can have over other people’s lives. We have also
considered our own feelings as practitioners and how this
can affect our work with deaf blind people.
11. Conclusion
We have also thought about strategies for
supporting people whose behaviour is difficult
to understand. The importance of proactive,
educational strategies has been highlighted – if
the person’s behaviour is a problem it is
because there is a need. The challenge we face
is to try and understand the problem and offer
ways for the need to be met. This may be about
offering more security, more freedom, better
communication, teaching new skills, attending
to health care issues … and so on.
12. Conclusion
This is a long process and sometimes things go wrong! This
is why we also need to have reactive strategies – a means
of calming things down and resolving crises so that we can
go back to our job of supporting the development of new
skills and understandings. We don’t learn well when we
are upset and angry! We learn when we are relaxed and
comfortable – when Sense service users are distressed our
primary task is to offer comfort and reassurance – help
them get back to relaxed and happier place so we can
continue to learn, explore and understand each other.
