Behavior in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract Introduction: Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that affects behavior. People with autism also face difficulties in social and emotional reciprocity and a reduced interest in sharing emotions or feelings. They often fail to respond to social interactions. A child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have challenging behaviors that educators, parents, and siblings find difficult. The aim of this article is to present results of the research using Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) for detecting motivation of the behavior of children with autism in primary school. Methodology: A total number of 35 participants were took part in this research, where 31 participants were children with autism and 4 of the participants were special educators. The research methods used for the study were descriptive and as instrument a questionnaire (MAS-test) was used to detect those situations in which an individual is likely to behave in certain ways, by selecting a behavior that is of particular interest. Results: Our results showed that our respondents have the following behaviors more often: screaming loud, clapping their hands, tendency to hide their head, constantly shaking their head, hitting (face, head, body), dragging, spiting at the educator, parent, adults, singing and vocal stereotypes, talking to themself, crying, desire to go home and scratching. Some of the results show that children’s screaming is motivated by the need of attention, while continuous behavior with hand clapping is motivated by sensory reasons, and avoidance usually is presented by hitting behavior (face, head, body). Conclusion: According to our results we can conclude that challenging behavior is very often in children with autism that visit schools, mainstream or special. To prevent these behaviors, it is necessary to know the motive. Therefore, teachers and professionals need to have knowledge of applying simple tests to detect the behavior of children with autism to prevent it. Children with autism have their own strengths that can only arise when the challenging behavior is removed. These strengths are needed and should be used to successfully pass the educational process and be able to integrate into society