We all experience triggers of various kinds. Triggers can be positive and negative. Those triggers which precipitate a meltdown are when you have reached the peak of endurance or frustration and it signals the nervous system to topple into the next phase of the meltdown. That peak or crest of the wave of the meltdown is that moment when you can slide off the wave or have to surf it (for those experiencing the meltdown). Most don’t believe you have that brief moment of choice. For children who do not have the life experience and self monitoring practices in place may not be aware of it, but there is a moment. Beyond that moment when you start to surf the wave you just have to ride it out.
For children, the triggers are primarily from the senses. They are perceiving and receiving energies of all kinds, indiscriminate, unchallenged, intense and uncontrolled.Their young and small bodies soon “fill up” to where they overflow with at emotion of some kind. I will use gender to distinguish some differences which may exist but this is from a historic perspective. History has shown us that generally more males are diagnosed with Autism and/or ADHD which means they may be more susceptible to meltdowns which express more physically and sometimes violently.
Females are being diagnosed more now, but their behaviours can be different. Females “mask” more. In other words, they become adept at changing to suit the environment and the norms within the environment. Girls may ended up in tears or retreat to silence. Sometimes there can be tears and then anger, and sometimes the other way around – anger and then tears.
For young lives, while the major of triggers are sensory, or situational, there can be other forms of triggers. I wrote about them in my book “The 8 Stages of a Meltdown”. These are triggers based on a memory, a flashback – for me it could have been a movie I saw which gave me nightmares, the theme music from Dr Who that takes me back to my childhood and those Darleks which scared me. I’d run and hide under the covers of my bed.
So not all meltdowns are triggered by sensory overload.
Some are just a frustration or inability to communicate.
Be aware of your child’s triggers and make others, particularly at school, caregivers or other parents, aware of what your child’s triggers are.
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Copyright/Author: Adrienne J Furness