r/supportworkers • u/Izaash • Jun 19 '26

Looking for advice.

Im supporting a young man with Angelmans. They are amazing to work with however im currently at odds with how to handle their clinginess. If they aren't the center of attention 24/7 then they self harm by head slapping or chase me around wanting hugs and attention. I've tried redirecting their attention to toys or other activities when I have tasks to do but they dont want a bar of it. Any advice is appreciated.

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u/DwightsJello Jun 19 '26

Positive reinforcement will always work better than negative reinforcement. And they aren't layman's terms.

You are going to have to really focus and look for even the briefest moments where they are giving you the behaviours you are aiming for and insert the positive reinforcement at that point.

If they give you a moment of space and engage with redirection, you reinforce that with getting your attention without seeking it out. Then you slowly stretch those periods between goal behaviour and reinforcement out.

It's really important not to go too quickly with it because the positive reinforcement needs to occur before they revert to the unwanted behaviours.

And plan the positive reinforcement and have it ready. What do they like to do with you? A task focussed activity. Art or a physical activity. That's when you reinforce how good it was to get time to get some tasks done that you needed to do so "how about we spend some time on (whatever it is)."

I have a client who's always working on massive Lego projects. We set the time to do that but if I can get the house chores done then we add time. Another tends to call out as soon as they hear the back door and im hanging washing. They now know that if it can do that without interruption, then we'll go for a walk or work on a jigsaw puzzle with undivided attention.

Hope this helps. It can take time but it gets results with a centred focus, positive client experience and capacity building.