I was told that one way to help a young child break out of a tantrum is to ask them an odd question, something like “What color shoes are you wearing?” It does seem to work sometimes, usually by annoying them so much that they forget what they were upset about in the first place. I can well see it working for someone who needs to get out of a mental spiral.
I was actually asked this as a kid while on the verge of a meltdown, it annoyed me so much it pushed me over the edge and I responded with throwing a chair. I then started swearing and looking for anything that could be used as a melee weapon, I settled for a table. So yeah your mileage may vary when it comes to autistic kids on that one.
Oof, yeah I could see how that could happen. I guess you really should know the kid before trying something like that. I usually find that making mine laugh is enough to start to reset them, and then helping them calm down is a lot easier.
Also, a question like that is definitely for small kids, not those who can fling furniture.
Reminds me of the “make an angry child laugh” trick. Which I absolutely loathed as a child, because it worked but it also wasn’t taking my emotions seriously.
Sometimes their emotions have gone so far past reasonable that the first thing you need to do is bring them back to the point you can actually reason with them. After that, yes it’s really vital to take their emotions seriously, they need to understand them and trust that the people around them will take them seriously, but they also haven’t yet built the skills to moderate their own feelings, so sometimes you need to add those externally.
I was told that one way to help a young child break out of a tantrum is to ask them an odd question, something like “What color shoes are you wearing?” It does seem to work sometimes, usually by annoying them so much that they forget what they were upset about in the first place. I can well see it working for someone who needs to get out of a mental spiral.
I was actually asked this as a kid while on the verge of a meltdown, it annoyed me so much it pushed me over the edge and I responded with throwing a chair. I then started swearing and looking for anything that could be used as a melee weapon, I settled for a table. So yeah your mileage may vary when it comes to autistic kids on that one.
Oof, yeah I could see how that could happen. I guess you really should know the kid before trying something like that. I usually find that making mine laugh is enough to start to reset them, and then helping them calm down is a lot easier. Also, a question like that is definitely for small kids, not those who can fling furniture.
I was 7 or 8, but that didnt matter too much since I had already started puberty.
Reminds me of the “make an angry child laugh” trick. Which I absolutely loathed as a child, because it worked but it also wasn’t taking my emotions seriously.
Sometimes their emotions have gone so far past reasonable that the first thing you need to do is bring them back to the point you can actually reason with them. After that, yes it’s really vital to take their emotions seriously, they need to understand them and trust that the people around them will take them seriously, but they also haven’t yet built the skills to moderate their own feelings, so sometimes you need to add those externally.