Challenging Behaviours in Children and Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

‘Challenging behaviours’, such as verbal and physical aggression, self-injurious behaviour, property damage and unsafe behaviours in the vehicle or in the community, are frequently reported in children and adults with intellectual disabilities and the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

These behaviours put the person at risk of placement breakdowns – school suspension, difficulties at respite or day program – due to the risks of harm for themselves, their carers and other service users. Caring for persons displaying challenging behaviours are also emotionally and physically demanding, partly due to lack of strategies to manage.

Finding the effective strategies to manage rely heavily on understanding the reasons behind these behaviours. More importantly, staff readiness to implement those strategies depends on their ability to relate to those clients' experience.

This interactive course helps staff and carers supporting clients in different settings to fully understand where these behaviours originated. A comprehensive list of strategies to manage will also be provided, with case discussions from Autism Spectrum Disorder and neuro-typical (non-ASD) diagnosis.

This course will also prepare professionals unfamiliar with intellectual disabilities or carers currently striving to manage for the full rollout of National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in 2018.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understanding various diagnosis commonly associated with intellectual disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder
• Understanding the difficulties and limitations faced by people with diagnosis of intellectual disabilities and how those lead to 'challenging behaviours'
• What are preventative strategies, reactive strategies?
• What are Positive Behaviour Management Strategies and why they work?
• Managing challenging behaviour and the risks when in the community
• Understanding of ‘restrictive’ and restricted practices in disabilities
• Crisis management – what to do and what to avoid
• Long term goal, what is and is not possible

Who should attend?

Workers supporting clients with intellectual disabilities