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Screaming for Attention: True stories about the puzzle of human behaviour

by Chris R. Arnold

98 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-1455; ISBN 1-4120-1086-1; US$14.00, C$15.95, EUR11.50, £8.00

These true stories, written from experience by a behavioural consultant, show that behaviour problems often happen for identifiable reasons, and understanding them is key to helping people improve their behaviour.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book This book is a collection of true stories told by Chris Arnold, a behavioural consultant who works with people with developmental disabilities. Each story is unique and shows how people labelled with inappropriate, problematic, or even 'psychotic' behaviour may actually have very valid reasons for behaving the way they do. Each story tells how the author worked through the challenging behaviours to find the true motivation or meaning for that individual, and as a result, assist that person to change their behaviour for the better. Some of the stories are humorous, some are sad, but most will cause the reader to stop and re-evaluate the way that they look at people with behaviour problems. The stories may even provide the reader with ideas for helping them deal with challenging behaviour in someone they know or love. The underlying theme of the book is respect for people that behave or communicate differently from us. Recognizing that labelling people, using negative approaches, or isolating them because of the way they behave is not a solution. Instead we must truly look at the motivations for people's behaviour in order to truly understand them. This book also contains a very valuable "useful resources" section that lists some excellent publications and websites on the topic of Non-Aversive Behaviour Management, Crisis Intervention, and Persons with Developmental Disabilities.

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About the Author Certified BC Provincial Instructor (Adult Education) Bachelor of Science (psychology) Master level certified Instructor * Crisis Prevention Institute Director of PNGI, a successful employment /training company celebrating 10 years in 2002 Past Treasurer/Executive Board of Directors * ASPECT * BC's Community Based Trainers Chris is the director / co-owner of a successful consulting, training and employment agency in BC. Chris has been working with people with disabilities for over 15 years, in residential and community based programs. As a behavioural consultant and instructor, Chris promotes the ideas of Non-Aversive Behaviour Management and Non-Violent Crisis Intervention. His area of specialty is in dealing with aggressive and violent behaviours. He is a dynamic speaker and passionate trainer, who has taught all over BC including presenting at Provincial and International conferences. Chris has written a number of training programs covering various topics of interest to persons in the human services and education fields. Chris has worked with a number of industries around violence in the workplace including developing specialized training programs for the airline industry on responding to unruly passengers and the issue of air rage. Chris is an 'advocate' for his friend ('Mac' from chapter 1 of this book) who lives in a group home in Terrace, BC. He lives in a small community nestled in the mountains on the northwest coast of BC with his wife, Melanie, and their flock of exotic parrots. He is active in a number of community groups including the Greater Terrace Beautification Society. His relaxation hobby is gardening.

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Sample Excerpts

Chapter 8

The End of the Broadcast Day

This was an item added to the agenda of our staff meeting by some very frustrated night shift workers with regards to Jason, a short, heavy set man in his late forties, who also had a hearing impairment. It seemed that Jason had started waking up at around 3:00 AM each morning and coming down stairs. Staff would try to redirect him back to his bed, which was on the second floor, but one thing that Jason could be was determined... when he got something in his mind he was determined to do it no matter what. Jason was small in height, but he made up for it in brute strength and if you got in his way when he was on a mission, watch out!

Staff reported that he would go to the TV and turn it on, then kneel down right in front of the screen and wave his hand in front of his face while he made a moaning noise. All this was quite disturbing for the night staff who didn't know why he was doing this. After all, there was nothing on TV at that time of night except the color bars as we didn't have cable?

We discussed this issue at the staff meeting and had a brainstorming session as to why this behaviour might be happening. Despite our best ideas, we couldn't identify the motivation. All we could do was to have night staff pay extra close attention to anything they thought was going on that might have to do with why this behaviour was occurring. We also agreed that staff should be careful to watch where they were standing when he started heading downstairs so that they didn't end upgetting in his way and getting knocked over.

The behaviour continued to occur almost every night and despite staff's best observations it still remained a mystery... what was he doing this for? Why on earth would he want to stare at the color bars on TV? We did not know the answer. One interesting thing that staff did notice was that when they just left him alone to do his thing he would stay in front of the TV from between ten to thirty minutes, then would turn it off and go back to bed without any problems.

A couple of weeks passed and I ended up being the supervisor 'On-Call' for the group home over the weekend. Of course this meant that if any staff called in sick it was my job to find a replacement. If I couldn't find a replacement it was up to me to cover the shift myself! Saturday night the pager went off and sure enough my night staff was sick! With not enough time to make other arrangements I knew I would have to work the night shift myself. "Well, at least I would be able to observe this TV staring behaviour first hand", I thought.

My shift began at 12:00 am and I was scheduled to be on until 8:00 am the next morning. As 3:00 approached I was listening and ready for Jasons footsteps to start clumping down the upstairs hallway. As it turned out he slept until 3:20 am and then I heard him heading for the stairs. I turned to watch as he came down the stairs, only in his underwear, holding on to the handrail. He swayed back and forth as if he wasn't completely awake. He reached the bottom of the stairs, stopped and looked at me as if to say 'well aren't you going to try and stop me?'. I just looked at him and smiled, at which point he turned and headed for the living room. I got up and followed him, stopping at the entry to the living room so I could watch without interrupting him.

Jason went straight to the TV, turned it on with the volume up quite high. Beeeeeeeep, the high-pitched monotone sound blared out, but of course being hearing impaired that didn't bother Jason!

He proceeded to kneel down about one foot from the TV sohis eyes were right level with the screen. On the screen was nothing at all except the color bars that come on when the station signs off for the night. Then he brought his right hand up and his fingers and thumb formed almost a backwards "C" shape which he held directly between his eyes and the screen. He started to move his hand up and down from one side of the screen to the other, and then back again... over and over. As he did he started moaning in a long single tone almost like the sound someone would make when they are meditating.

I found myself fascinated watching Jason, and finally curiosity overcame me. I slowly walked up towards where Jason was kneeling, dropped down to my knees and inched my way up right beside him in front of the TV. I reached out and turned down the volume, (Jason may be hearing impaired but I am not and the sound was getting a bit irritating) at which point Jason looked over at me with a funny look on his face, almost as if to say 'What the heck are you doing?'. I just smiled at him and turned my eyes back to the TV, raised my "C" shaped right hand and started to bounce it up and down and side to side just like he was doing.

All I could say was "Wow! this is very cool!". Pulsating light from the TV screen when viewed that close almost made my hand look as if someone had turned a strobe light on resulting in my hand bouncing along as if in slow motion. This was a very stimulating effect. This new behaviour was so interesting that I stayed there for about five full minutes bouncing my hand up and down and back and forth right along beside Jason. Then all of a sudden he stood up, turned off the TV and went back to bed, where he stayed for the rest of the night, sleeping soundly.

It seemed to me that when a person like Jason is lacking one of the basic senses you or I have to stimulate our minds, they might rely more on the stimulation of their remaining senses, such as their vision. This no longer seemed like a behaviour problem, but a method to stimulate and relax his mind so Jason could return to bed and fall quickly back to sleep. Why fight it?

Over the next week, every staff person I ran into had to put up with me dragging them into the living room and making them get down on their knees and try out the TV Stim. behaviour. Almost everyone that tried it agreed with me that it was very cool, to which I would reply, "If you think this is cool you have to try doing it at 3:00 in the morning when the color bars are on!".

Jason's behaviour was no longer a problem from that point on, but a relaxation strategy. It became a non-issue and everyone was much happier in the end. As an added bonus, I learned a great new relaxation technique from my friend Jason! If you ever have a hard time sleeping, go ahead and try it. It just might work for you.

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Catalogue Information

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