How do I calm your emotionally disturbed child?
When it comes to the emotional problems of children with autism, many parents often feel helpless to do anything about it.
But while autism may take away a child’s ability to express themselves verbally and their cognitive understanding, it does not in any way take away their innate joy.
So what can we do to help our autistic children regulate their emotions?
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What Do You Do When Your Autistic Child Wakes Up and Cries?
Timely Self-diagnosis
- When a child with autism wakes up at night and cries non-stop, calm the child down in time to ensure the child’s safety and the people around them, or by diverting attention to the child first.
- A child crying in the middle of the night may be caused by mental depression and other reasons. The patient’s underlying needs need to be observed, and the mood may be relieved after the request is met.
- The child may have physical complaints such as allergies, rashes, crying, and stressful behavior after eating some foods. Allergens can be checked to avoid such foods or triggers to relieve symptoms.
- The child can be distracted by other things of interest to relieve the crying.
Seek Help From Your Doctor
5. But if it is not one of the above when your child is crying in the middle of the night, you should take your child to the hospital for the relevant tests. See if a physical illness causes it and make timely adjustments under the guidance of your doctor.
6. When a child is diagnosed with a disease, parents should do a good job of corrective training, take more time to communicate with their child, and teach them how to run their own lives.
7. Also, pay attention to variety in your child’s diet, and you can choose foods that are easy to digest and absorb.
When a child cries, we must be careful not to ignore it. At this time, we should give the child enough security to consolidate a sense of trust and closeness, thus easing the child’s emotions.
Why Do Children with Autism Have Emotions?
Emotions exist for all people, including you, if you face distress.
Children with autism have some degree of impairment in thinking, communication, and interpersonal relationships. Therefore, it is easy for them to lose control of their emotions when their demands are not met.
Sadly, their outbursts go beyond crying and jumping and may accompany aggressive and self-harming behavior.
Nevertheless, it is important not to stifle emotions when they arise. Patiently guide them and allow the child to release their emotions rather than suppress them, which may lead to more serious behavior.
How Can We Help Our Autistic Children to Release Their Emotions?
Many things in life affect our emotions, and everyone chooses to release them differently.
So what can we do to help children with autism who are unable to allow their emotions to be fully released?
- allow the child to release their emotions in an appropriate setting, allowing them to actively reconcile with their ’emotions’ by letting them cry.
- Comfort your child by actively guiding them to talk about their worries and listen patiently to them.
- Offer to hug your child to make them feel loved and secure.
- Listen to your child, don’t interrupt them, be friends with them and share their stories.
- Help them find appropriate ways to vent their frustrations, such as running or “beating” a stuffed animal.
- Do something simple with your children, such as drawing or doodling so that they can express their emotions through their hands.
- Listen to simple music with your child to help calm them down.
- Play and travel outdoors with your child to enjoy nature’s beauty, leave emotions behind, and relax.
How Can We Help Our Child Regulate Their Emotions?
- To help your child regulate their emotions, you should first make them aware. Teach your child the words to express emotions and the facial expressions people use when in different moods to learn and recognize their current emotional state.
- Teach your child to express their emotions and needs instead of crying all the time to get attention. Tell your child what to do when they are happy. What to do when you are sad? Why is it sad?
- Teach your child to observe other people’s emotions, to see how they are at different times, and ask your child what you would do if you were in their shoes. How can you help me if my mother is in such a mood?
- Don’t focus too much on your child’s emotions when upset. Try to tell them the consequences of such emotions and steer the child towards the right idea.
- When your child is in a good mood, parents should give intermittent reinforcement using encouragement and other methods to enhance the emergence and maintenance of good moods.
How To Regulate Your Child's Emotions?
Natural Context Teaching.
The Natural Context Approach is a method of teaching children with autism in a natural educational and home environment to develop their initiative and natural behavioral skills.
This teaching and teaching environment method is one of the most commonly used today. It has no hard and fast standards and can easily be done at home. It is very helpful in enhancing the child’s ability to learn and reducing their resistant behavior.
Behavioural Therapy.
Constrains the child’s behavior to improve or remove autistic and maladaptive behaviors and helps them to form good daily routines or relevant professional skills.
This constraint is a form of restraint for the child and may trigger rebelliousness. Guide patiently and persevere, and you will see your child grow.
Art Therapy.
Give your child a paintbrush and allow them to express their emotions through drawing while simultaneously gaining relief and satisfaction from the process, thus achieving a diagnostic and therapeutic effect.
Music Therapy.
Allow your child to express themselves and release their emotions by free playing an instrument to achieve their goals.
Cuddle Therapy.
Advocates of cuddle therapy believe that gentle or forceful cuddling can reduce an autistic child’s allergic reaction to physical contact and repetitive self-harming behavior.
Cuddling gives the child a sense of security and allows them to feel safe rather than in a constant state of panic.
Family Counseling.
Children with autism have developmental deficits in many areas, so they often need more care and training, but this is not straightforward. As far as possible, family members are guided to recognize and help children with autism with the professional counseling of a social worker so that their psychological needs can be dealt with promptly and appropriately.
Sensory Integration Training Methods.
The development of the balance reflex is delayed due to the young child’s inadequate inhibition of the primitive reflexes, causing severe abnormalities in the body’s responses, resulting in impairments in perceptual functioning and attention, and affecting the ability to feel self-conscious about their body and their psychological self-esteem. Training is provided in the coordination of sensory and perceptual information with each other, balance, touch, proprioception, language development, and vestibular awareness.
Conclusion:
Finding the cause of emotional outbursts is a problem faced by almost all parents of children with autism. Emotional outbursts are not nice, but please don’t try to avoid them; teaching and helping your child to relieve them is the most important thing.
