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  • I hope your child has learned by now without serious accidents ! My nearly 7yr old has Down Syndrome and engages in risk taking behaviours. She is an escapist and attempts frequently to run away,
    She climbs on the stair rails and in a plant area on top of the stairs, she climbs walls, tables and chairs and is often risky and dangerous,
    Succeeded to climb the garden gate and was on her way to the park, crossing the roads without looking several times recently (we now placed barbed wire on the gate and cat spikes on another gate),
    She has no sense of road safety,
    She is a sweet and affectionate girl with no stranger danger awareness, she will hug strangers and when alone would no doubt follow or go with them.
    Consumes items not for eating; licks sharp knives, eats large amounts of playdough (gagging on it, not able to swallow it as it stuck to her throat), eats blu tack, chews and eats pencils, chalk, crayon, glue, the wooden stick of an ice cream, drank lens cleaner and when I unpacked a shopping bag she quickly grabbed a bottle of hair gel spray unscrewed the top and drank a third of the bottle causing gagging and struggling to breath (resulting in a doctor’s visit).
    We found that it helps to praise for for behaviour we like to see (more attention for good behaviour then bad behaviour) and where it is possible ignore bad behaviour.
    We also try to give positive instruction instead of negative instruction. For example we tell her “the chair is for sitting” instead of telling her “no climbing the chair”. Dangerous items are out of reach or locked away.
    Since she is a climber we also think it’s good to provide her with equipment and situations she can climb, like going daily to the park and having climbing equipment in the garden.
    When she climbs on the table I may for example lead her outside and tell her you can climb on on the climbing frame.


  • Thank you for responding. He pushes chairs over to everything and climbs really fast. He has broken most locks. I need to find a way of him cooperating when I say, “Stop”.


  • Dangerous items should be put out of reach. Perhaps you could put a sturdy width shelf on wall to stand them on. If you don’t have space to put a long one, perhaps you can puit up a few short ones. Make sure the shelves are level. You don’t want things sliding down towards you.


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