any ideas, a simple game becomng big poblem!

zana

My son has SLD no verbal communication and behavioural difficulties. Otherwise he is a happy active v, active! seven year old. He loves playing ball football throwing etc and has a really good kick and throw. But this is where the problem lyes. He has become obsessed with throwing the ball or any other items eg my daughters school shoes over the fence. He will be happy playing then suddenly turn and throw over the fence. He then becomes upset and aggressive because he has lost his ball! He will do this whether someone is with him or not and will sometimes throw things in protest of being asked to do something. Any Ideas? I have tried to play this down, but I am currently doing time out with him for this behaviour because one of my neighbours is not very tolerant of children and keeps complaining Help!

GinaS

Hi zana,

it is quite difficult to understand why someone exhibits a behaviour without knowing the person but I'd suggest a few things:

- introduce more games that require throwing/kicking, including throwing the ball AND other items/toys
- monitor the time he's engaged in this throwing game; maybe he gets fed up at certain point, try to introduce short burst activities (I appreciate this might require a lot of energy and creativity but it's worth trying!)
- you made a very good observation ; you said he sometimes throws things when he is asked to do something; try to "place the demand"/ask him in a more indirect way, and also trust the "grandma's law" (known as Premack principle); place the demand first and a favourite activity should follow - in that way you give your child a choice between 2 "good consequences" (ie let's do this first and then we play..)
Are there particular things he doesn't like doing?

I am also wondering if he has similar behaviours at school?