How would you handle an Autistic child who was having a tantrum?

Answer 1

Bare in mind that there is a difference between tantrum and meltdown.

A tantrum is where a child is attention seeking and acting out to get something they want. A meltdown is an uncontrollable emotional response to stress and/or stimulation, often this causes temporary drop in function so the child is unable to communicate and may be more sensitive to stimulation, and for a few days following they may be more severely effected by their autism.

Answer 2

The reason why a child with autism tantrums is usually one of the following:

A) They don't have the language skills to communicate what they need. i.e. - they have an earache, and they only thing they can do is cry and bang their head.

B) They have a sensory problem. People with autism tend to have either over reactive or under reactive senses. For example, a child with autism might be oversensitive to sounds and a passing firetruck siren may feel like knives stabbing their eardrums.

C) Their routine or surroundings have been disturbed. Some kids have a problem dealing with change. They can over-focus on a small detail that takes on too much importance. If Mommy leaves the house with red hair and returns with brown hair, then a stranger has just replaced the red-haired-lady-who-loves-me. If the T-rex in the dinosaur collection gets chewed up by the dog, then the entire collection is unfixibly incomplete and immanently vulnerable to destruction.

D) They can't understand the point of view of someone else. A snicker from a classmate becomes a major assault deserving of a slew of obscenities and objects thrown at them.

E) They have an underlying medical issue. Many children with autism have coinciding medical problems such as Allergies, eczema, Asthma, digestive issues, or muscle tone problems. You'd be cranky too if you were chronically itchy, crampy, or wheezy.

Answer 3

Most autistic people suffer from meltdowns - children tend to suffer from meltdowns more frequently than adults because as we grow we learn to manage our condition better in order to prevent stimulus that could trigger a meltdown.

Meltdowns are uncontrollable emotional outbursts that come on as a result of over-stimulation or stress - our brains are more sensitive to stimulation (touch, taste, smell, light, sound, etc.) so too much stimulation at once can be too much to handle, and it is this that triggers a meltdown....essentially it's our brains saying 'ENOUGH!!!!!!' Often incorporated in the meltdown or after a meltdown we can also experience 'shutdown' where we stop communicating or taking-in information, allowing our brains a chance to readjust. Imagine meltdowns and shutdowns like a computer crashing.

It is unpleasant as autistic people cannot control this yet are often scorned for having meltdowns, also meltdowns themselves can be painful or uncomfortable to experience as well as lead to heightened senses or inability to function as well for days afterwards.

Answer 4

Autistic children (not children with autism) can scream or become aggressive when they are upset or during a meltdown. A meltdown is an uncontrollable emotional outburst as a response from the brain to stress or over-stimulation - meltdowns are very uncomfortable for Autistic people.

Answer 5

You would handle an Autistic child having a tantrum in the same way as you would any other child, however what some people think is a tantrum could be a meltdown.

A tantrum is when a child isn't getting their own way so they are misbehaving to test boundaries and attempting to get attention, or their own way. A meltdown is Autism-specific, it is an uncontrollable emotional outburst as a result of over-stimulation or/and stress, often accompanied by shut-down which is where the child cannot respond to communication and literally shuts-down.

Autistic people have a lot to deal with in terms of sensory input and social interaction, sometimes it gets too much and that's when we see either a shut-down or a meltdown - people compare this to an overloaded CPU in a computer causing a computer to crash. If a child is having a meltdown it's important to try to remove them from any sensory or social stimulation (a dark room would be perfect, but away from the stressful environment is what's needed), and limit sensory stimulation or social interaction - this includes trying to comfort or reason with your child, as much as you may want to do this it can make it worse. Allow the child to stim to self-regulate, many Autistic people will have sensory toys or use tablets to focus their attention and shut-out external stimulation.

In time you learn the difference between a tantrum and a meltdown, you also learn to recognize situations that may bring about a meltdown (loud busy places, places with certain forms of sensory stimulation, places where the child may feel trapped, etc.) and when your child is getting close to a meltdown. As long as they're allowed to self-regulate they will calm themselves down.