Self-injurious, aggressive and destructive behaviour in young children with a moderate to profound intellectual disability

Self-injurious, aggressive and destructive behaviours shown by children with moderate to profound intellectual disability (ID) can pose a significant challenge to families and clinical services. These are behaviours which have the potential to cause harm to either the child themselves or others around them, or to damage the environment.

These behaviours are related to compromised physical and psychological wellbeing in the children who show them, as well as parental stress, overuse of medication, higher service costs and a greater risk of out of area placement.

There is now a well established literature on understanding, assessing and intervening effectively for self-injurious, aggressive and destructive behaviour in children with moderate to profound ID. This article provides an overview of the most important research findings and the implications for practice.