Behavioral Interventions for Aggressive Behaviors in Autism Spectrum Disorders

The symptoms of autism can affect an individual across their development and lifespan. The presence of co-occurring problems, such as intellectual disability and behavior disorders, can greatly impact the complexity of the core symptoms of the condition. It has been demonstrated that behavioral problems in autism are prevalent with a range from 35.8 % to 94.3 % (Kozlowski AM, Matson JL, Rieske RD. Res Autism Spectr Disord 6(2):95864, 2012) and a large number of studies identifying at least half of participants with autism engaging in one or more challenging behaviors (e.g., Matson JL, Wilkins J, Macken J. J Mental Health Res Intellect Disabil 2:2944, 2009; Murphy O, Healy O, Leader G. Res Dev Disabil 3:47482, 2009). Aggression is often observed as one form of challenging behavior in autism and can threaten both personal safety and the safety of others and can also significantly impact on ones exposure to greater numbers of learning opportunities. Horner et al. (J Autism Dev Disord 32(5):42346, 2002) provided a research synthesis that showed the early use of behavioral interventions resulted in reductions of problem behaviors by 8090 %. In the absence of intervention, problem behaviors, such as aggression, tend to persist in individuals with developmental disabilities as they grow older (Murphy G, Beadle-Brown J, Wing L, Gould J, Shah A, Homes N. J Autism Dev Disord 35:40518, 2005). Providing empirically supported behavioral interventions to individuals with autism presenting with aggressive behavior will not only impact directly on the problem behavior but will increase individuals social, educational, and environmental experiences throughout their lifetime.