Ming explains why children hit their parents, especially those with speech delays or autism. When kids can't express needs or emotions, they feel threatened and hit to escape discomfort. Hitting becomes a learned behavior that strengthens when it works.
So there are some reasons to why children hit Number one, they cannot express something and they're pushed to do or say something that they are not comfortable with doing. In terms of children who are like, delayed in speech and maybe on the spectrum as well, from what I see, if a child already doesn't have the chops to tell you what they want and express their needs and emotions, what happens is that they feel threatened at that point and they can't do anything about it. They will resort to hitting you to get out of the situation. So it's kind of a frustration release and also escapism, and it becomes a learned behavior. So thing about behaviors is the moment your child gets to hit something or someone, it already gets reinforced.
