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Tempers

NAS82883

I have a 3.5 yr old undiagnosed autism and has the worst temper I have seen, we get things thrown at us,scratched, nipped you name it happens. Unfortunately we are no where near being diagnosed as where we live it takes forever.

these episodes can last anything from 5-10min to hours. I am starting to feel like I have let him down cause I can’t help him.

would it be north while speaking to his doctor? 
I need some ideas with what to do 

thanks

  • Can you elaborate on his surroundings and the events just before he melts down? This will almost always be from a build up of frustrations with the external environment and his inability to adapt/cope. 

    For me, even a prolonged exposure to the short band of light spectrum any sort of LED gives will cause an low undercurrent of conflict as the human brain was not designed to process unnatural light, so it has to do extra work to navigate that kind of unnaturally lit space. 

    We are sensory beings. With out sensations, doubtful we'd be alive as all life-forms have senses to navigate the world. Autistics have difficulty filtering out unwanted signals.

    When they're unnatural, like chemically designed smells in household products, some which cause irreversible asthma or lung damage, the brain may be processing that incoming signal as a danger to the system and a slow undercurrent of survival mode begins to happen. If you add to this with polyester fibres on the skin (a by-product of petroleum which is a form of plastic), unnatural lighting, household sounds in conflict (a TV and a radio and outside noise and electrical wires buzzing, lights buzzing, humans demanding a response), internal senses with organs and gut-issues which one is just starting to recognise - I could go on, but the best thing to imagine is everything-all-at-once, which most autistic toddlers feel assaulted by daily in a space that's supposed to be safe. 

    Two other factors are difficult: Interruptions rather than slow, intentionally planned transitions (which is also a part of the sensory overload) and difficulty with communication - internal and external. These 3 things are the main sources of completely heartbreaking and exhausting things we can go through as small children. We appear to have a "Temper", when in fact, most humans will never thrive when pushed to a breaking point without reward daily. 

  • Hello NAS82883,

    I'm sorry to hear about your child. There is a book called 'It can get better' which deals with common behaviour problems in young children. Here is the link: https://www.autism.org.uk/shop/products/books-and-resources/it-can-get-better

    The NAS website has a guide on meltdowns and you might find useful information there: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/behaviour/meltdowns/all-audiences

    All the best,

    Karin Mod