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?
One thing that would have helped me pretty often as a kid would be the chance to physically distance from the conflict, calm down on my own over time, and get my thoughts in order (maybe by writing or typing them out) before re-addressing the conflict.
Very good coping tools. I’ll get her a note book specific for writing and drawing her feelings about a conflict and sorting her thoughts before discussing. I think one issue is she reacts before she can make better choices.