The Headbanger's Ball

Mikey has recently developed a new behavior. When he gets frustrated or angry, he bangs his head on the floor. He has been walking around with a big knot on his forehead for the last month. Behavioral intervention with ABA has all sorts of methods to use to stop bad bahaviors and increase the occurence of good behaviors. In fact, ABA can be used on any child as a way to improve behavior. Most of the methods for stopping bad bahaviors involve ignoring the child and not responding to the behavior. However, you can't ignore a behavior that could cause injury. Some might think that the child wouldn't really injure himself, but that doesn't take into account that children with autism often feel pain differently than other children. Our ABA book has exactly one paragraph on the subject, suggesting that responding to the behavior may increase the liklihood of it re-occurring. Thanks a lot for the wonderful advice. At this point we are a bit perplexed as how to stop the behavior.