Meltdowns in ASDs

I'd like to see a lot more research about how to help kids with ASDs who have problems with meltdowns. My 12 year old son has struggled with these episodes of falling apart and crying OR raging since he was a toddler. (He was tossed out of several pre-schools and has been suspended several times in elementary school. He's in a special program now, so they deal with it better.) There is no aspect of his disability that hurts him more. It limits his chance to participate in almost anything, even though he's sweet as can be 95% of the time, and has an OK IQ. That 5% meltdown factor is just devastating.

Your post was like reading my own story. My son has been suspended so many time, and mostly it was due to the 'power struggles' that the school tends to engage in.You can't teach a child to not be aggresive, when he is constintly come at aggressivly. I currently have an attorney fighting for my son for a referral to a better school.

Can you reach him with music? Worst meltdown mine had at school was the spring after his dx. Two teachers were DRAGGING him down the hall towards the nurses office & the AP came downstairs, took him from the teachers & sat in the back room of the clinic with him. He apparently barked orders to kill the lights & grab the boombox off of his desk; Mozart. Took 30 minutes, but it worked!
Current teacher has a length of stretchy fabric she calls a "blanket". He now ASKS to be rolled up in it & she takes a nubby ball & does a massage with it. The meltdowns, for my son, are directly related to his sensory issues....Too much input & ka-boom! Remove shoes, sharp objects, furniture, people & wait for him to "land."

My son does respond to some sensory interventions, too. He loves to be made into a "burrito" by being wrapped in a blanket. (It's getting harder to do that, now that he's so big.) His meltdowns were not always about sensory issues, though. They just seem random, and when he is "off" nearly anything can trigger a meltdown. I have come to wonder if it feels like extreme PMS from his point of view --when you feel unable to keep in balance and even little things seem catastrophic. Risperdol has helped him a lot, although we still have a bad day here and there.

I am new here but certainly not new to the topic. It interests me how we have developed our own language. One mom wrote referring to her son "when he is off". Oh can I ever relate. My boy now 12 has the same type of meltdowns. Less often in public that he is older; or should I say less outwardly obvious. Sometimes we can see it comming and sometimes he just snaps. We too just remain silent and keep vigil until he calms down. Before puberty started a hysterical cry used to be the end. He doesn't do that as much but I wish he did because it seemed end faster.
He has sensory issues as well and will remain in underwear rolled up in an old blanket all day if we let him.

Hi All! My 12 year old daughter has always had meltdowns. There is a question in her diagnosis if she has a mood disorder. And she really is worse during PMS. Her teachers,et al noticed this also. I called her psychiatrist who agreed we could increase her Zoloft by 25mg for the 10-2 weeks before her period. It makes me nervous because anti depressants are known to trigger manic episodes in people who have bipolar disorder. On the other hand, I think, it might be helping some.

Nanc2758, glad to read about your son wrapping himself up in a blanket in his underwear. My daughter has some pretty peculiar things that she has done, and continues to do that I find painful to watch. (She cannot bear to wear underwear, so gets urinary tract infections.
Her hair gets very matted, but doesn't like to have it brushed. She would wear it in a Rastafarian style permanently if I didn't put my foot down.

I have begun to wonder if my daughter's meltdowns are not some type of seizure activity. During the meltdown she is like a different person, as if taken over by another entity (my ex-husband used to make references to The Exorcist...and, no, I do not think she is demon-possessed, but it is a rather apt description of her behavior).

After the event, which can last well over an hour, she sometimes seems to "come to" herself and will ask where she is, who she is with, what we are doing, etc. Once equipped with this information, she will begin to function normally (for her) again.

She is highly verbal, which has changed the picture of these events quite a bit, as the contrast between her apparent inability to use or understand language during the meltdown, and her usual verbosity, is so striking.

Has anyone explored the possibility that some of this behavior is due to seizure activity? I don't know where to turn to find help for this.

My son's OT figured out by accident when he was 5 (he is now 12 and wasn't dx'd with Asperger's until last year) that jumping on a trampoline for 5 minutes completely sucked all the energy (as well as "the angrys) out of him. We went right to Walmart and bought a minitrampoline that afternoon and still use it for him and his brothers (who also have been recently dx'd)!
I am thankful for that wonderful therapists accidental find every time we use it!

This is so interesting!!
Ok - my boy has always had meltdowns too. When he was younger it would escalate until he broke down and cried - like major wailing. The tears seemed to wash all the nasty away. And he would calm down and be loving and sorry and sane again.
Now that he is 12 - puberty has cast it's ugly head upon us! The melt downs come out of the blue and are litteral rages - and he does snap out of it as quickly as it came. He does know what he did but is in total denial and embarrassed that it happened.

He also has had sensory intergration therapy. The trampoline has worked in the same way! We don't have a trampoline because my husband ran too many kids to the hospital by ambulance after falling off one - and our boy is clumbsy. But he takes karate and has some work out equip. at home that I make him do his workout until he is exhausted before company comes or we go out to dinner where there will be excessive stimulation - and it does help him to manage his behavior - I thought it was just a coincidence. But I guess not.

My son, who has asperger's, has had meltdowns since he was an infant. He is now 8, and although they are becoming less frequent, the intensity of the meltdowns has increased. They appear to happen most often when he is trying to interact with other children. He doesn't understand "social norms" about taking turns or give and take. He is very clumsy, which adds to his frustration when playing with other kids.

We have found that video games calms him right down. I bought him a gameboy 2 years ago and when we see a fit coming on, I give him his gameboy and he is able to get himself under control a little faster. It also helps him focus.

My son also has a fascination with smooth fabric, such as pantyhose. He is obsessed with touching it and will steal my ex-wife's any chance he gets. We finaly gave him a small piece he can keep with him and that also appears to help calm him down.

Hi everyone, I just joined today and am interested to see what everyone does to cope with an ASD meltdown.
I have 3 boys, ages 6, almost 5 and 3 with varying degrees of ASD. The two younger boys are diagnosed with autism, but it's my 6 yr old that has the biggest meltdowns. We suspect he has aspergers, and like another poster mentioned - he is a great kid 95% of the time, but the 5% meltdown mode is what causes him to be socially ostracized.

He is highly competitive, and we've found that video games have often triggered his meltdowns - as he takes them very personally, and does not take any perceived failure well. He is afraid to try new things for fear of not being able to do it perfectly.
He is exceptionally gifted in the area of mathematics - so anything to do numbers is great - counting things, and figuring out anything math and spacially related will allow him to stay on task for a lengthy period of time, and he is able to experience success.

I just don't know how to deal with his meltdowns though - he'll either become very aggressive (resulting in throwing things) or he'll go into complete shut down mode, close his eyes, lay down on the ground or curl up in a ball and become completely unresponsive to anything for a period of time. Both responses are frustrating not only for him, but for those around him.

I am in the same both with you all. My adopted son has been aggressive since he was 2! He gets angry easy and has a very low frustration tolerance. he has difficulty with other peers he hits screams, and has bitten. He definitely has improved since he has been on abilify and focaline, however it is hard to take him to parties and fun things because he is sometimes unpredictable and we don't want another child to get hurt! This is his biggest stumbling block, other than that he is high functioning and great 85% of the time

MichelleF wrote:

I am in the same both with you all. My adopted son has been aggressive since he was 2! He gets angry easy and has a very low frustration tolerance. he has difficulty with other peers he hits screams, and has bitten. He definitely has improved since he has been on abilify and focaline, however it is hard to take him to parties and fun things because he is sometimes unpredictable and we don't want another child to get hurt! This is his biggest stumbling block, other than that he is high functioning and great 85% of the time

Also my son has most of his meltdowns when it has to do with things like video games or competitive play. When I take the game system away, he has much better days, he too does not think of them as "just a game" he tells me its real to him.

I frequently use squeeze therapy on my son when he's having a meltdown. For obvious legal reasons, schools no longer use this therapy. Also known as Hold-therapy. A nifty trick is to wrap your child in a blank, for the even pressure some kids thrive on, and make him a hot dog. Pretend that you are putting mustard on him. Smoothe your hand over the blanket and then add the relish. Warning: you cannot use the hot-dog "treat"ment unless the meltdown is minor. I agree with the music therapy, it works great for us. My son's favorite, at school, is to go into the smallest space possible. Usually under a desk, out of the way until he can regroup. I wish you good help and understanding at school.

Hi Everyone,

I work at the center where my son goes for services in the afternoons. I am also working toward earning my bachelors degree in Applied Behavioral Science.

The staff that work with my son at the center view meltdowns and tantrums as expressions of anxiety. It's kind of a visious cycle. It starts off with somekind of trigger; a task that is too hard, being overwhelmed my their environment, misinterpreting something that has occured - be it a social interaction or a command given by a teacher or parent, and so on... list can go on and on.

Once the trigger is, tripped so to say, they will first display some generalized form of frustration (mild form of anxiety). From there their anxiety escaltes really quickly. Sometimes so quickly that the 'frustration' stage is not even noticed at all.

Once they have started to escalate (spiral out of control) it is very easy to unintentionally cause an increase in their escalation. Simply in the approach that is used, the tone of voice that is used and so on.

Example: John is escatling out of control. The adult near him goes over to him and yells at him for being a disruption and orders him to return to his seat in a firm and cross voice.

This will most likey cause John to spiral further out of control because you have just introduced another element to his immediate environment that he can/might/will misunderstand and misinterpret. There is good likelyhood that John would not understand why this adult is angry and cross. Even if the adult wasn't really angry and was just using a stern voice to get his attention, John can will very likely missinterpret the sterness in that persons voice as anger, meaning he is in trouble.

The best approach to use with this population, according to the staff at the center where my son goes, is to remain calm and keep your voice and nutral as possible.

Interviening the situation as early as possible is another approach that they use. When a child is beginning to escalte, that is when they step in. There goal at that point is to help the child to understand what they are struggling with and to help talk them through what they need to do to help themselves through the problem. This may take only a few minutes or it could take an hour to get talk the child through what they are struggling with.

Once the child has escalated too far out of control talking them down is no longer an opption. Once they have reached a certain level of escalation they are incapable of listening to anything that is being said to them. At that point you need to just help to keep the child safe until they rideout the eppisode.

It's during this extreme state of escalation that you will see a child retreat to a small space. At that point the child is so overwhelmed by their environment that they are trying to make their world as small as possible - to reduce the stimuli that is triggering the eppisode.

Another interesting thing that the staff at my sons center have told me is that anxiety causes a person (with ASD or not) to burn blood sugar at an elevated rate. Where ASD kids live in a constant state of higtened anxiety, during a melt down eppisode, they burn blood sugar at an extrodinary rate. And infact, a lowered level of blood sugar could possibly be part of what triggers an eppisode(this would be an interesting subject to do research on).

I think that many schools do not fully understand how to effectively address the behaviors of some of the students they are working with. There are so many new theories out there. It seems to me, at least based on the things I have seen in our school district, that more school staff trianing in urgantly needed. Not jsut for ASD kids, but for all disorders that present with behavioral issues, such as; ADHD.

sspetrok