When my son began to be aggressive with his little brother and myself, I noticed that he would give some warning signs before the hitting would start. First, he would seem restless and unsettled, like he was bored but agitated and did not know how to release that anxiousness. Then he would start to be aggressive. So the next day, as soon as his 'warning signs' began, I brought out exercise stretchy bands. I would hold one end while he pulled the other. I also showed him how to do pushups and some yoga poses. I also took away his favorite blocks for a few hours if he did hit. The hitting stopped after less than a week using this strategy.

My son can be aggressive, too. We just started ABA last week, and we met yesterday to discuss his evaluation and what we'll work on. She said that all behavior serves a need. He is doing that for a reason, and for my son, it's often about instructional control. He is aggressive when things don't happen his way or he doesn't get what he wants. Parent training starts next week for us while he is in ABA therapy. She said we'll be working on ABC (Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence). You can google it and find all kinds of charts and helps with this. It helps to chart when and what surrounds the outbursts. You can get a better idea about why and then replace that behavior with another behavior. Even though we haven't been in ABA long, I can tell it will be a help for us as parents and for him. Parenting an autistic child takes different skills than parenting a neurotypical kid. It's good to get help on strategies. My son is five and is big for his age. He has given me bloody noses and bruises. I just think if we don't get this under control, he'll be a teenager and could really hurt me. That is not right for him or me.

We have the same problem with our seven year old son. He's hurt his older brother and the dog, he's smashed a IPod, and broken things. I try to beat him off at the pass when I see it starting but I don't always make it in time. I've tried to redirect his frustraion and anger into physical activity but it hasn't worked. Doing resistant bands is a good idea. Because he is capable of riding a bike and throwing a ball I didn't think of doing somerhing physical WITH him. It is more about getting him through the moment then just moving him from the situation. After all, the emotions follow him wherever he goes so just walking away won't help, walking away with someone and with a purpose might help our Alex more. Thank you Mermaid333.

Like all behavior you need to figure out the function, before you can find a solution. Is it attention? is it release of energy (nervous, anger)? Is is to get access to something or avoid something? Then once you figure out the why then you can work on teaching a replacement skill (asking for attention (doesn't have to verbally), requesting a toy, saying no...ect)