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?
After reading all the other comments full of great advice, I wanted to mention I technique I use. If I’m really struggling to get through something I pretend I am a diffrent person. Like an actor. There is a great deal of recovery time, but in a pinch, difficult conversations, job interviews, and such, I can pretend to be another person who handles things flawlessly. Maybe do some roleplaying? Invent a superhero persona for her she can slip into when she needs to.
And thanks for being so understanding of your daughter. I had to figure everything out on my own!
That’s a really cool idea. She’s a bit young especially mentally but we will try that in the future.
There is for sure more understanding of autism now than there was when you were a kid, and unfortunately some parents just don’t understand or learn about autism.