Yes, they need to be disciplined. Ill disciplined autistic children have no future. Except for their parents, not many will be able to care for such children. The tricky thing about disciplining autistic children is to distinguish behaviors that they have control over and those that they can’t.
For example, my daughter used to throw tantrums right in the middle of busy and noisy shopping centers. She suffered from sensory overload (thank God that’s a thing of the pass). It would not be fair or appropriate to discipline her for this.
However, when she was younger, she would take snacks from the shop and we would take it from her and put it back on the shelf. This would trigger a massive tantrum. We tried reasoning and when that didn’t work, we tried slapping her hand… didn’t work either
What did work was this: We explained to her before we left home that we will not be buying snacks when we go out. If she cried, we will return home immediately. Well, like any other normal children, she tested us and we simply picked up the struggling child, threw her into the car and drove home. The behavior was never ever repeated.
I think what happened was that we had established 2 things to her:
- That we are the boss and
- We mean business when we say “no”.
This was what worked for us. You know your own child better and I am confident you will find a way to make your child understand and accept your rights and authority as a parent. This is the basis and purpose of disciple, so that your child can learn where the limits are.
