Negative Attention Seeking

Yesterday, I was agitated and I was not able to express what was troubling me. I acted out by throwing my new CD player on the floor. I have behaved like this periodically in the past and have caused damages to a few CD players. My mom has taught my caregivers to ignore any of my undesirable behaviors because reactions from them will reinforce my behavior. They tried to redirect me by giving me stickers, which worked initially. Nobody knew why I was agitated and since the real problem was not resolved, I continued to act out. I picked up my caregiver's CD player and intentionally threw it on the floor right in front of her.

My mom was really upset when she heard how I behaved yesterday. She suspected that it might be related to my frustration with the CD's and/or players. When I listen to my CD's, I keep pressing the buttons to search for the song I like. Sometimes I like one specific part of the song and I am constantly pressing buttons to repeat what I want to listen. My actions ruin my CD's and shorten the life span of my CD players. Then I get frustrated because nothing is working and I cannot listen to my music.

My mom has two challenges now. One is to figure out strategies to eliminate my negative attention seeking behavior of throwing CD players. The other is to come up with ideas for me to be able to listen to music without having to replace CD's and CD players on a regular basis. Sometimes my CD's only last for days and my CD players last for only weeks.