Hello all, my daughter is eight years old. She is high functioning autistic. One trouble she has is she will either misunderstand social situation’s or become easily triggered. When these things happen her mind becomes disorganized and she will have meltdowns. She will not be able to gather her thoughts and ends up yelling at the other person (usually her older brother) but not in a way that is not productive to solving the problem…
I have talked to her about calm down techniques, but she is asking if there is ways that people with autism specifically handle these things. I know how I handle them, but I am coming from neurotypical perspective and even though I have done a lot of reading on this topic I feel it would be a good idea to reach out to the community to see if you all have any advice for her.
So what do you all do in a high stress situation where your brain just wants to yell? What helps sooth and calm, sooth, and organize thoughts?
My high-functioning son is 10 and and I would like your daughter to know it can get better. Keeping calm is a skill you can develop with time and patience.
Being outside away from people and in nature seems to help calm my son quite a bit. He is learning to be less triggered but sometimes he just needs time away until he can collect himself. Pets and stuffed animals seem to help him, too.
I remind her that it will get easier as she gets older. Being a kid can be very difficult. I’ll get her a stress stuffed cat to hug if she get upset,