Thanks for the response. She get bruised from actually hitting herself. We all have tried to distract her but she has quite a focus for her age. I babysat her a couple weeks ago and she wanted to play in the sink in the bathroom instead of taking her bath. When I said no, she started crying and hitting herself. This is the general way it starts for her. I tried to get her to play with her toys to distract her, but it took about 20 minutes for her to settle down and not lay on the floor kicking and hitting herself. We have also tried to 'just ignore it' but that really does not seem to work when she is this upset. We hope that when the evaluation is finish, they can give her parents some suggestions too. Right now we are just trying to get through the month till then without too many of these incidents.
Thanks again for your post.
Distraction is the best way,holding her hands when she doesnt want them held will only make ir worse in fact it is possible that has reinforced the behavior,however well intentioned yet it is hard to see them do it .How does she get the bruises is she banging her head on the floor ? When she starts to do it perhaps start a game up something she will like doing ,some music some dancing , distract her by fun,and Games from the behavior. Perhaps she gets upset, so check out what could be the cause.what happens prior to it. Dont feed into it it could also be a way of getting attention, instead focus on her getting positive attention.