Functional characteristics of disruptive behavior in developmentally disabled children with and without autism.
For boys with autism under five, parent interviews often reveal sensory and ritual-escape functions behind disruptive acts.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Reese et al. (2005) asked parents why their young children with autism act out. They compared boys with autism to girls with autism and to kids with other delays.
Parents gave answers during regular interviews. The team looked for patterns that differed by sex and by diagnosis.
What they found
Parents of boys with autism often said disruptive acts were triggered by loud sounds or by stopping a ritual. These acts looked like escape from sensory pain or from broken routines.
Girls with autism and kids with other delays did not show the same pattern. Their problem behavior had other common causes like getting toys or avoiding work.
How this fits with other research
Kocher et al. (2015) seems to disagree. They found no sex differences at all in toddlers with autism. The key is what you measure. P et al. looked at general test scores. Matthew et al. looked at why behavior happens. Different lens, different answer.
Matson et al. (2009) and Rodriguez-Seijas et al. (2020) extend the picture. They also show boys with autism display more repetitive acts and girls show slightly weaker motor or stronger communication skills. These small gaps may feed the unique escape functions Matthew found.
Antezana et al. (2019) add that girls with autism lean toward compulsive or self-injurious repetition. Knowing this helps you decide if a girl’s disruption is escape from ritual interruption or something else.
Why it matters
When you interview parents for an FBA, ask extra questions about sensory triggers and ritual blocks for boys under five with autism. If the child is a girl, weigh ritual or compulsive features instead. Tailoring your questions this way can shorten assessment time and point to faster, safer interventions.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Expanding on Reese et al. [2003], functional behavioral assessment interviews [O'Neill et al., 1997] concerning disruptive behavior were conducted with parents of 23 children with autism (6 females, 17 males, chronological ages [CA] 24-60 months) and 23 controls without autism pair-matched for CA, developmental age and sex. All children exhibited frequent disruptive behavior. The interviews suggested that matched control children's disruptive behavior typically functioned to gain attention or items, or to escape demands in general. This was also true for girls with autism. For boys with autism, disruptive behavior more often functioned to (a) escape demands that interfere with repetitive behavior, (b) retain access to an item used in repetitive routines, or (c) avoid idiosyncratically aversive sensory stimuli (e.g., ordinary household noises). These results emphasize the importance of considering behavioral characteristics that are associated with sex and specific disorders or syndromes when conducting functional behavioral assessments.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2005 · doi:10.1007/s10803-005-5032-0