Commentary: Conceptualising demand avoidance in an ASD context - a response to Osman Malik & Gillian Baird (2018)

Child and Adolescent Mental Health
Elizabeth O'Nions, Ilse Noens

Abstract

Malik and Baird (this issue) have raised a number of important points drawing on our study of parent-reported dimensions of difficulty in children with features of extreme/'pathological' demand avoidance. In particular, they highlight the pressing need to understand why some children exhibit problematic demand avoidance, and identify factors that promote and maintain these behaviours. As Green et al. () note, children with ASD often show a strong reactivity to the environment. As such, stimuli, activities or interactions that present no problems for typically developing children may unexpectedly provoke extremes of affect. Both Green and colleagues (2018) and Malik & Baird (this issue) highlight a number of possible contributory factors, including sensory sensitivities, difficulty in predicting outcomes, need for sameness, poor tolerance of uncertainty, and fluctuations in autonomic arousal.

References

Jun 1, 2004·Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities : the Journal of TASH·Joseph M LucyshynJeffrey R Sprague
Oct 1, 2014·Behavior Analysis in Practice·Adam T BrewerD Courtney Williams
Sep 1, 2018·The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health·Jonathan GreenGillian Baird

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Citations

Apr 21, 2020·Child and Adolescent Mental Health·Ann Ozsivadjian
Mar 20, 2019·Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders·Dean Falk

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