Hi all, not sure if posts like this are allowed here but: I’m a dad to a 7 year old on the “less severe” end of the spectrum (is that the right way to phrase it?) and while he generally lives a pretty normal life he’s recently started having trouble dealing with emotional changes. Things like:
- adjusting to changes in his schedule (like a school lesson has to be changed)
- having a disagreement with someone
- when he or a group he is part of loses at something (he takes board/card games too seriously and holds himself personally responsible for losing)
Things like this cause him to get immediately frustrated which quickly moving into anger and screaming and some cases violence. Obviously mum and I are trying to help him understand and manage these feelings but I’m worried the way we’re trying to help him with it isn’t the way he needs.
Does anyone here have any experience with similar situations or advice on helping him to manage these emotions? Thanks in advance.
I’ve heard the phrase ‘less/more profound’ though it seems there is still much debate on terminology.
Identifying emotions can be useful, probably has to occur after the event when he is receptive. There are many aids for this like emotion wheels etc should be easy to find online. A lot of autistics struggle to understand what they’re feeling or separate emotions from physical feelings so having a guide can help give him the tools. Might be useful to read about alexithymia also.
Perhaps role-playing a scenario might be good too. Such as playing a short board game together and saying let’s try to lose on purpose. Or changing your schedule but letting him know ahead of time that this is a ‘practice’ change (and the change being a nice thing for him). Having it occur in a safe way may help him tolerate and understand it when its less under his control.