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Back to old ways phase

NAS80219

One of our students had an amazing week last week. This week they are slowly starting to go back to 'old ways' and is becoming increasingly more 'challenging' to work with. 

Yesterday, they did not speak verbally from 10am, after they offloaded about their weekend. They would communicate using our hands (we would have one and for yes and one hand for no and they will tap either hand). We couldn't get a head nod or shake. They would also drag staff over by the arm if they wanted to show or communicate something. That was all day, no eye contact either and now has a new fascination with spiders. They were also chewing on everything they weren't meant to. Pica hasn't been a huge issue with this student but they were eating bottle lids, paper, plastic. 

Today, they struggled to stay regulated but was in control and completed as much work as they could. When work becomes tough they refuse to carry on (we have put things in place to help with this). Today they were trying to hit teachers but we dodged them. 

If anyone has any tips or advice to get them to eat and support them even more in the school environment, we will love to hear it. Many thanks in advance. 

  • in reply to NAS80219

    A fundamental problem with many autistics is alexithymia, so we do not recognise the build up of negative feelings until they overwhelm us and result in meltdowns or shutdowns. What to do about it, I couldn't say, but knowing that it exists may be useful.

  • in reply to Fibonacci Squid
    Fibonacci Squid said:
    sounds like a classic 'over exerted myself doing things that are at the limit of my ability and then didn't have the energy to manage in the slump afterwards'.

    Eminently plausible.

    Fibonacci Squid said:
    Also spiders are cool. 

    You are not wrong.

  • I think you're coming at this wrong. You're expecting basically good behaviour because it happened previously. Being "good" ie conforming is hugely draining. It sounds to me that communicating about the weekend was all they could manage. What did they report about the weekend? Had they been socialising and used up their energy? Or doing some hard homework? Did they have all weekend to think about a situation that's stressing them? 

    Plastic bottle tops are very satisfying to chew. Maybe it's a new stim, maybe there's alternatives to offer. I humbly suggest that work shouldn't have been part of today and self regulation ought to have taken priority 

  • Today the same student has become increasingly aggressive. They say nothing was bothering them but obviously this wasn't the case. They would kick and hit staff on multiple occasions. We said if they carry on we will send them home. They got really upset, crying, and asked to go home. We said yes, with parents agreeing, and when they got to the bus (they get the bus to and from school) they started to calm down with staff and later returned to school and completed work extremely well. 

    What triggered this mornings behaviour, we don't know but aggression is becoming a huge problem. 

  • From the point of view of an autistic person who doesn't have all the same behaviours but some similar ones, this 'Did really well one week and then really struggled the next' sounds like a classic 'over exerted myself doing things that are at the limit of my ability and then didn't have the energy to manage in the slump afterwards'.

    Longer term often referred to as burnout. Basically it sounds like the 'doing really well' week took a lot of energy and a lot of effort for the student and now they're experiencing the consequences of that. 

    Going non verbal, lack of eye contact, investigating a special interest to a large degree, stimming excessively (for me this also often involves chewing on non edible things) these are all things that I experience in a slump.

    So what this shows is that maybe at the moment the 'doing well' isn't a sustainable option for the student and somewhere in between needs to be found. Decide which bits are the most important. Not hitting people probably very important, eye contact not really important. 

    And recognise that this is going to be a thing that happens when they've exerted themselves and have the net built in so that you're not surprised by the slump afterwards. 

    Also spiders are cool.