Challenging Behavior in Autism: Characteristics, Functions, and SMART Goals

Organizational Behavior 1
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Organizational Behavior 2
Case study – Background
Autism is a developmental disorder resulting due to genetic mutations due to non-genetic
environmental influences and primarily affects the neurobehavioral conditions causing impairment of
social interacting behavior and development. As per the view of Case-Smith, Weaver&Fristad(2015),
it is known as an autism spectrum disorder by medical professionals because of the huge range of
symptoms that are associated with the disease. The case study that was undertaken in the assignment
suggest the behavioral characteristics of an autistic teenager along with the understanding of the
behavior and the reasons behind executing that behavior. Certain actions are performed by the
autistic teenager considered in the study that is repetitive in nature and has meaning attached to
them.
The teenage boy considered here getting upset when he misinterprets the tone of voices that
he is being spoken to by others or when his needs are not fulfilled. His caretaker has also pointed out
that he can be frequently physical aggressiveness showing the behavior of hitting others lightly with
or without reasons. This highlights his needs for attention and the habit of engaging in frequent mood
swings. His caretaker and family members have to give him constant attention to prevent him from
getting frustrated. Recent behavioral changes have been noticed one of which is the behavior of
unnecessary coughing that is induced willingly to get attention from someone who is near him. She
has been checked by the doctor who stated that he completely fit and was rather pretending to cough
repeatedly to get attention, especially from his mother. He is also avoiding the tasks that have been
provided to him by willingly tearing up his school books and smiling while doing it. He also
routinely pretends to be sick to get a medical certificate from the doctor to skip going to school.
His behaviors tend to be repetitive and restricted according to DSM-5 as per the classification of the
American psychiatrist board. According to Christensen et al. (2018), diagnostic and Statistical

Organizational Behavior 3
Manual of Mental disorder – 5 (DSM-5) is a standard classification system related to a mental
disorder that is used by medical health professionals of America to diagnose and categorize patients
with a mental disorder, including autism, based on behavioral patterns. As per the view of Jain et al.
(2015), restricted repetitive pattern of behavior, as shown by the autistic teenager considered in the
assignment, is characterized by stereotypical motor movements (vigorous shaking of chair), insistent
and repetitive pattern of verbal and non-verbal behaviors (getting frustrated when not given
attention), high restrictions to a routine, hypoactivity or hyperactivity towards sensory environmental
inputs and severity in impairment of speech or other physical activity.
Characteristics of Autism
Autism spectrum disorder is a severe disorder that affects 1.24% of the world population, which
is calculated to be 9.34 crore per year. According to Baio et al. (2018), it can serve to be a fatal
disorder with the average life expectancy of affected individuals to be 54 years. Several
characteristic features encircle individuals with the autistic spectrum disorder as discussed below:
1. Autistic individuals show impairment in social interaction and slow language development.
2. The repetitive pattern of behavior in which individuals affected with autism frequently
performs a single physical or mental activity to convey a message or just as a behavioral
pattern.
3. As per the view of Pickleset al. (2016), retarded brain development with extreme emotional
imbalance, characterized by frequent mood swings.
4. Social communication issues are the main characteristic of autistic individuals with difficulty
in understanding non-verbal and verbal communication.