Blank stare/freezing when anxious

I might first ask if she's being interrupted, even in her imagination. 

Suppose you open a computer doing a great deal of background tasks and you try opening and operating a large programme - it might just freeze up. 

Autistics and ADHD have a few similar cool 'processing effects' which can cause external delays. We tend to have this wild imagination making all kinds of seemingly discreet connexions and sense-perceiving the world as 'too real' due to less ability to dull our senses. If too much is happening internally and too many external (and internal) factors are hitting our senses all at once, when asked to make a quick transition, we might appear frozen.

All children need transition time. With autistic children, you might not sense the Whole Other World happening in their imagination and so not realise they need to be asked: 1. Can I ask you a question or are you in the middle of something? 2. When you're ready, I have a few things for you to help me with - no rush, but find me when you're done. 3. Or Assign a set amount of time: I'll pop back in 5 minutes. 

A different dentist is tricky. That's a very intimate space, one's mouth! It can take years of practice with a martial arts or movement/yoga group to learn to breathe through a process.

Last minute things can feel like being ambushed. They can feel like being hit from behind. Interruptions are possibly the Most Difficult and if possible, should be only matters of grave consequence, as they can cause immediate Fight/Flight/Freeze Stress response which is harmful for the human biology. Most things in life can be afforded a little time to transition. It can take me hours after socialisation to get back to work, and if I don't take it I tend to mess things up, which has worse consequences finically. The other side of this coin is Hyper-Focus and Flow State, which is usually what is being interrupted. I'm not sure there's a yogi on Earth who approves, nor CEO.

With children, practice reinforcing only doing one thing at at time: whether walking up/down stairs, finishing making a tea (not also loading the dishwasher and tidying up - one thing per moment), or doing homework. In order to thrive, allow them time to plan and time to get lost in the moment. 

I might first ask if she's being interrupted, even in her imagination. 

Suppose you open a computer doing a great deal of background tasks and you try opening and operating a large programme - it might just freeze up. 

Autistics and ADHD have a few similar cool 'processing effects' which can cause external delays. We tend to have this wild imagination making all kinds of seemingly discreet connexions and sense-perceiving the world as 'too real' due to less ability to dull our senses. If too much is happening internally and too many external (and internal) factors are hitting our senses all at once, when asked to make a quick transition, we might appear frozen.

All children need transition time. With autistic children, you might not sense the Whole Other World happening in their imagination and so not realise they need to be asked: 1. Can I ask you a question or are you in the middle of something? 2. When you're ready, I have a few things for you to help me with - no rush, but find me when you're done. 3. Or Assign a set amount of time: I'll pop back in 5 minutes. 

A different dentist is tricky. That's a very intimate space, one's mouth! It can take years of practice with a martial arts or movement/yoga group to learn to breathe through a process.

Last minute things can feel like being ambushed. They can feel like being hit from behind. Interruptions are possibly the Most Difficult and if possible, should be only matters of grave consequence, as they can cause immediate Fight/Flight/Freeze Stress response which is harmful for the human biology. Most things in life can be afforded a little time to transition. It can take me hours after socialisation to get back to work, and if I don't take it I tend to mess things up, which has worse consequences finically. The other side of this coin is Hyper-Focus and Flow State, which is usually what is being interrupted. I'm not sure there's a yogi on Earth who approves, nor CEO.

With children, practice reinforcing only doing one thing at at time: whether walking up/down stairs, finishing making a tea (not also loading the dishwasher and tidying up - one thing per moment), or doing homework. In order to thrive, allow them time to plan and time to get lost in the moment.