Aggression and the termination of "rituals": a new variant of the escape function for challenging behavior?

Dawson et al. (2000) watched one child who hit adults whenever they stopped his repetitive hand-waving.

They ran a short functional analysis. In one test the therapist let the ritual run. In another test she blocked it.

Hits only happened when the ritual was blocked, showing the blows served to escape the interruption itself.

When the team no longer stopped the hand-waving, the hitting stopped.

The ritual continued, but aggression dropped to near zero.

This supports a new idea: for some clients, aggression is simply a way to keep their ritual going.

Tassé et al. (2013) later used the same logic with three adults who had autism. They called the plan "avoidance extinction" and also saw rituals and aggression fall, proving the idea works past childhood.

Konstantareas et al. (1999) had already shown that tiny changes in task cues can turn escape behaviors on or off. Dawson et al. (2000) moved that lens from task escape to ritual escape, refining the antecedent picture further.

Strachan et al. (2009) found that most aggression in Angelman syndrome is not attention-based. Their data sit beside Dawson et al. (2000): both warn that the old "attention or escape from tasks" story can miss the real trigger.

If a client hits when you block stereotypy, do not assume the stereotypy and the aggression need separate plans. Test first: allow the ritual in one condition, block it in another, and watch what happens to the hits. When hits only show up during blockage, teach tolerance for interruption instead of just stamping out the stereotypy. This single change can erase both problems at once.