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Completely Baffled

ParentingAutism

Today has been a bad day for my daughter is school. We are trying to figure out the reason for the behaviour but so far have no clue what the trigger was. School phoned me earlier and explained how today she was showing challenging behaviour in ways that isn't her 'usual' ways. 

For example, it just happened completely out of the blue. Staff were outside because she wanted them there, there was only another student in her classroom who was fine. Next thing, she is chucking and kicking things off her desk across the room. Then she is running round school and then she throws and kicks more things about in the foyer (main area) before hitting a member of staff who was blocking a door. She then was held, and she started head banging, biting herself so they couldn't let go and when they did, she would bite herself even more. 

She then went for a walk with staff holding her supporting ice packs on the parts she hurt. On the walk she was described as being very wobbly and stumbling all over the place. All this behaviour isn't what she would usually do and especially for how long it went on for. At the end of the day she refused to get into her taxi so I picked her up. Not the best day for anyone but we can't help her if we don't know the trigger. Even she has no clue and keeps asking me what I think. I'm completely baffled as the school. There were no obvious triggers and school staff asked her questions and didn't find an answer. 

On the walk, she refused to go back to school twice when they got near the door, she would just turn around. Just wondering what others opinions are from a different point of view.  

  • in reply to Abbie

    The wobbling I believe was caused by exhaustion after the struggle she had with everything putting up a fight for ages. 

    She did say that sensory issues wasn't a problem that day and that nothing she can think of could have triggered it. She working on it with staff trying to pin point what happened to see what happened. 

  • You may have already considered this so forgive me if so, but since you mention your daughter was wobbly and this continued for a while, is it possible she was hungry/dehydrated, or perhaps having a bad reaction to something she ate or drank earlier? I had to stop drinking fizzy drinks as I got older because they made me nauseous, but it was a delayed reaction so we didn't realise that was the cause at first. Another thing could be exhaustion - had she just been being very active not long before this?

    Sensitivities can change as we grow too - she could be having an adverse reaction to something that didn't bother her at all before, like a slight sound or smell or internal sensation.

    If there's no obvious trigger in the moment, it's very likely to be something internal or a 'delayed' response to something else. Kind of a 'final straw breaking the camel's back' situation. She could possibly have been set off by something incredibly tiny that would normally not provoke such a reaction, but with other things weighing on her mind it broke the dam on far greater emotions. Are there things going on in her or your lives that could be an additional stressor? Even if its something relatively small like a change in routine at school. I hope this helps in some way.

  • in reply to Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

    Thank you, I will do some researching. Staff have tried helping her piece together what happened because she can only remember some parts.

    I did have another update saying that the staff involved have serious injuries. One has been hurt in the head, another was punched, another had a chair chucked twice in the leg. That's all I know so far. She would've been excluded but she has been doing so well they decided not to. 

  • Your daughter seems to be turning to self-harming behaviors recently. I mean she understands that she reacts intensely towards certain situations, and even though there's no visual trigger, maybe a smell or a bad feeling that could have triggered her. Also it could be a chemical imbalance in her body that produces these intense negative feelings as well, like from inflammation in her system, or some other health issues that affect her body. And maybe delving a little deeper into the reasons for the self-harm could be helpful for prevention as well. 

    Perhaps talking to a health care professional and reading articles about self-harm in children for parents could be helpful as well. I mean it's a difficult topic to talk about, but your child is a priority. 

    It's really hard to hear that your daughter has all these bruises and bite marks on her arms and hands, and that she does not even know what had triggered that episode to take place. I really hope that your daughter finds the help that she needs and recovers from it. 

  • My daughter has bandages wrapped round her hands and I hate it. She shouldn't be biting herself to the point her hand starts to bleed. She has bruises all up her arm from last week. Both her arms are just covered in bruises or new bite marks, later turning into bruises. I don't know what to do with it anymore. We have no money to buy anything to help so we are relying on the school to give us answers on what triggered today. But no one knows.