Supporting your child's needs

These are some common challenges that families tell us that they are experiencing, please find some strategies on how to support these individual needs. 

Supporting children with ‘meltdowns’

• Neurodivergent children and young people may have ‘meltdowns’ for many reasons. Some factors that lead to a young person feeling overwhelmed could be tiredness, sensory overload, a tendency for overthinking and rumination, relationship issues, hunger, pain, and difficulty coping with demands.
• If children are very heightened, it can be difficult to reason or talk with your child at that particular moment in time. It would be important to ensure everyone is safe in the house first, and then think about allowing the child a safe space to come out of the intense emotional state first.
• Some children may find it difficult to cope with lots of verbal information at this time, so try and keep directions to a minimum and ensure they are short and clear. It can be helpful to avoid asking lots of questions at this time.
• Some neurodivergent children and young people may struggle to talk about emotions. They may struggle to understand what emotions feel like in their body (alexithymia), so they do not recognise when they are becoming distressed until it is extreme. It may not be possible for them to talk about emotions in the midst of a meltdown so it may be better to avoid asking them to explain their feelings at this time.
• Validating emotions and reflecting back to the child can be helpful, e.g. ‘I can see that you are getting upset. That must be horrible for you.’
• Allow the children and young people time to recover when emotions are spiralling. Often children can struggle with very difficult emotions such as rejection, shame, feeling criticised etc. These emotions can be so difficult to experience, they are often projected away as extreme anger outbursts. Knowing that you as a parent are still there for them despite the intense emotion that they are experiencing will be important to help children know that the people around them can tolerate their distress with them.
• A child may not be able to self-regulate themselves when highly aroused. Supporting them to regulate and bring down their emotions can be helpful. A safe sensory space, music, repetitive movement may all be helpful strategies to help a child practice managing their emotions.

Support for children who ‘mask’

• To ‘mask’ or to ‘camouflage’ means to hide or disguise parts of oneself in order to better fit in with those around you. It is an unconscious strategy all humans develop whilst growing up in order to connect with those around us. However, the strategy of masking is often ingrained and harmful to young people’s wellbeing and health. Young people may experience pressure to hide their true selves and to fit into a neurotypical culture.
• ·Sometimes children will ‘mask’ difficulties at school if they are trying very hard to not show their difficulties. Often children may present very differently at home and at school. Good communication between home and school may also be helpful, so parents can make sense of any changes/incidents that may have occurred within the school day.
• Masking may involve suppressing certain behaviours that neurodivergent young people find soothing, such as stimming or intense interests. It can also mean mimicking the behaviour of those around us, such as copying non-verbal behaviours, and developing complex social scripts to get by in social situations. With this comes a great need to be like others, and to avoid the prejudice and judgement that comes with being ‘different’.
• The best solution to reducing the need for autistic people to mask is to spread awareness of different neurodivergent behaviours and thinking patterns.
• Although masking can be a useful coping strategy, using the same coping strategy long term, could trigger fatigue and exhaustion which can lead to mental health difficulties. Awareness of the negative feelings that can be caused by internalising negative stigma, and practicing self-kindness and compassion can be important for young people.

 

This part doesn't make much sense. Could you look at it and also provide links.

Supporting your child during festive periods/celebrations

Sleep

While we are not able to offer any sleep services, there are other organisations and places to access support and guidance.

·       Together Trust – Resources, information and advice | Together Trust

·       Together Trust ‘Sleep Chats’ – as well as their sleep clinics, Together Trust offer 15 minute chats with a qualified sleep practitioner to discuss any sleep issues.

·       Children’s Community Support Team (C.C.S.T) – offer consultations to parents of children 5-17 years with a diagnosed disability or an identified SEND need.

·       National Sleep Helpline – Trainer sleep advisors who can talk things through and suggest ways to help. The helpline number is 03303 530541. The helpline is open Sun-Tues and Thurs 7pm-9pm, and Weds 9-11am