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Meltdowns: Faculty and Staff Response Makes a Difference

If you’ve been in academia for any length of time, you’ve likely witnessed a student or two (or even a colleague) lose their cool in a classroom or elsewhere on campus. This is what usually comes to mind when one thinks about autistic meltdowns: someone who is very upset and letting everyone know – loudly. In fact, some staff and instructors are concerned when they learn that there will be autistic students on campus. They aren’t sure what autism entails, and have heard something about meltdowns, which leads to concerns about violent outbursts.

As the director of an autism advocacy and educational program at a large community college, I once received an email from an instructor who was concerned that a student in her class might start shouting and throwing chairs and books. She had recently found out that the student was autistic. She went on to state, “This student was in my class last quarter, and had no behavior problems, but now I am concerned.” As I assured her that her knowledge of the student’s disability would make no difference in the student’s behavior, I did wonder if that was entirely true. Her own heightened anxiety, or attempts to “control” the student, may very well be triggers for the student!

So, let’s talk about what faculty and staff can do to support autistic students, and really all students, both proactively – to prevent meltdowns – and reactively – if a meltdown does happen.

What is a meltdown?

The first thing to know about meltdowns is that they are a normal part of being autistic. As we get older, most of us, neurodivergent and neurotypical people alike, learn how to manage meltdowns, including navigating our environment and managing our cognitive and emotional loads to prevent them, or manage them in a safe environment, however, college brings new experiences, so, particularly at the beginning, there may be an adjustment period for some students.

When you’re not familiar with an autistic meltdown, you might confuse it with a “tantrum” or attempt to intimidate others. However, it’s important to realize that an autistic meltdown occurs when the person is overwhelmed: by their sensory environment, by cognitive demands, by emotional demands, or sometimes all these together. The person experiencing the meltdown is not doing it on purpose to gain something. Once it starts, and sometimes even as it’s ramping up, the meltdown is in control of the person, not the other way around.

A meltdown can be an explosion or an implosion. It can look like someone putting on the brakes: stopping, freezing, not responding – sometimes in place, sometimes in a corner or on the floor. Or, the student may be crying, sobbing, screaming, shouting, sitting, standing, lying on the floor, stomping their feet, curled up in a corner, rocking back-and-forth, hyperventilating, completely silent, unable to speak, or a combination of these.

On rare occasions a meltdown may include self-harm – banging one’s head, hitting one’s arms or face, stabbing oneself with a pencil, or scratching oneself. We’ll discuss what to do later about this later in this post.

Proactive measures: what can faculty and staff do?

When we examine why meltdowns happen, we can begin to see what we can do to help prevent them. Meltdowns are a very specific response to overwhelm and overload. Sensory, cognitive, and emotional. When we work to lessen the sensory, cognitive, and emotional load on autistic students, we will also reduce the likelihood of meltdowns, and, improve the academic experience of those and other students at the same time.

How can we support sensory processing?

Think through the environment. Are the lights bright? Can they be dimmed? Can you use natural light instead, or ask for different types of lighting? Can you put up “no scent zone” signs, and honor this yourself? What about sound? Sometimes instructors think it’s nice and relaxing to start off class with mood music. And, while that may be true for even most of the students, it can be torturous for the autistic student. Consider whether you are willing to torture one student so that other students can have some relaxing music for a few moments. This concept extends to group work – can some groups leave the classroom for group work, to minimize the cacophony? If you’re working at a noisy front desk, can you move to a less crowded location to have a conversation with the student?

The more you can lessen the sensory load, the less your autistic student needs to expend their energy fighting it, and the less likely an overwhelm will happen. There’s quite a bit written about Sensory Processing Disorder – here’s a great place to start: Ten Tips to Help Neurotypicals Understand Sensory Processing

Cognitive processing

Autism is considered a cognitive disability. This is different from an intellectual disability, although a person can have both a cognitive and an intellectual disability, of course. A cognitive disability involves the way we use language, memory, and attention to organize and use information. So, to support a person with a cognitive disability, it is important to use accessible language, and provide memory and attention supports. Using Plain Language, Universal Design, and putting things in writing will go quite a long way towards reducing the cognitive load on all students and allow them to expend their energy on learning the course material instead.

Put it in writing and organize it

Whether it’s a due date change, or directions to the cafeteria – write it down! When you meet with a student, get in the habit of emailing meeting notes after the meeting, so that you both have a written record.

For assignments, ensure that they are organized and easy-to-find. With most colleges using a learning management system (LMS), such as Canvas or Blackboard, it’s a natural place for students to look for assignments online. Use it to your advantage to keep everything in one place. For each assignment, provide links to the materials a student will need for the assignment, or create assignment “packets” online. Anything that you can do to remove executive functioning barriers will reduce the cognitive load for your autistic students, and better support other students as well.

Plain Language

One terrific way to provide accessible language is to use Plain Language. Plain Language was developed by the U.S. government in the 1990s, to better support the variety of people who used government websites and other written materials. It was made law by the Plain Writing Act of 2010. Plain Language is something that is written in a way that users can:

• Find what they need
• Understand what they find
• Use what they find to meet their needs

This is useful for any type of directions, whether it’s for an assignment, applying for a scholarship, making an appointment, registering for a class, or any of the myriad things that college students do on a daily basis. Using Plain Language supports many different students; not only autistic students. The information on the Plain Language site gives terrific detail on how to craft Plain Language for different purposes. It’s worth your while to learn about it and learn to use it! You can find more at the U.S. Federal Government site on Plain Language.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Infuse UDL principles into your pedagogy to engage students and allow them to show their understanding of the material in multiple ways. Again, as with most things we do to support autistic students, using UDL will better support all students.

Universal Design isn’t just for the classroom though. Staff can implement elements of universal design in interactions with students by understanding that interactions can and should be flexible; allowing for different ways of interacting depending on the need of the student. You can learn more about UDL at Cast’s Universal Design for Learning site.  

Plain Language and Universal Design Combined

Some of the things we’ve already talked about can also reduce the emotional load: using Plain Language as discussed above can help you strip some unneeded emotional content from your communications and assignments, leaving students available to better absorb information and focus on the important concepts.

Universal Design can help as well! Allowing student choice in assignments also allows students to avoid topics that bring up trauma or stress. Be aware that many, if not most, of the autistic students in your class will have strong emotional responses to certain topics, and it’s not always easy to predict what those topics might be. Of course, other students may have strong emotional responses as well. We are not attempting to remove all stress, certainly, only to provide it in amounts that the student can reasonably handle without a meltdown. Allowing student choice, while also steering clear of ableism in assignments and instruction, will support students in regulating themselves in the academic environment.

Emotional Processing

College can be an emotional experience for all students. New experiences, new people, new concepts and even ideologies to learn, all go into the emotional roller coaster that is college. For an autistic student who may also have difficulty sorting through or naming these emotions, who may experience emotions more intensely than their peers, and may even be absorbing the emotions of those around them, the emotional experience of college can become incredibly overwhelming. Add to that the microaggressions experienced regularly by all disabled people and you can begin to get the picture.

Respect: what does it mean to an autistic person?

Using your classroom rules to provide a safe classroom environment will also go a long way towards reducing the emotional load on the autistic student. Remember that it’s not enough to tell students they must be respectful – be sure to define what respect looks like in terms of behavior, both verbal and non-verbal. Rolling eyes, snickering, avoiding group or lab work with a person, etc. are all examples of non-verbal disrespect that should be specifically stated as against classroom rules from the start. As the instructor, or other college official, you inform how other students will respond to the autistic student, so be sure to respond in a kind and respectful way yourself.

If you’ve learned about autistic communication, you already know that most autistic people appreciate direct communication. In fact, we have a nonverbal learning disability that prevents us from picking up on some implied meanings, so, if you have something to tell us during class, please tell us! But, and this is important, be as kind as possible. “Sam, that is really interesting! Class, did you hear what Sam was telling us about plankton? I would love to hear more, Sam – can you email me, or come to see me during my office hours? I need to move on to the next part of the lesson right now – class will be ending in 20 minutes, so I don’t have much time. But, I appreciate your depth of knowledge, and can’t wait to learn more later!”

After class, you can make a deal with Sam that they send you interesting information via email so that you don’t get distracted during class, and perhaps you can even use some of Sam’s information in the class at another time. It’s likely that Sam has good information to add, however awkwardly or inappropriately they may do it.

Avoiding Ableism

Just as we would never make a racist or sexist statement in class, or include these things in our assignments, we must be careful to avoid ableist statements in class and in assignments as well. This topic is too large to tackle here, and, for non-disabled people and non-autistic people, is an education that takes time. T.L. Lewis maintains a page about ableism, as a good place to start.   

Reactive measures: when a meltdown is in progress

The first thing to do is assess the situation:

• Is the student safe?
• Are others around the student safe?
• Is the educational environment being disrupted?

If the student and others are safe

As long as the student is safe, and not disrupting the learning environment of other students (more on this soon!) the best bet is to let them know you are there if they need you, and then give them space to work things out on their own.

Here’s what autistic people have to say about what they need in this moment, from a Facebook poll by Radical Neurodivergence Speaking:

Over 100 people said “leave me alone, act like I’m invisible.”

• If I'm with a safe person, as everyone else said, please pretend I'm invisible.

• If I'm alone, approach quietly and unobtrusively from the side (not head on and definitely not from behind) and ask me if I'd like help finding somewhere quieter. Wait for me to process your question. If I say yes (verbally or nonverbally), lead me to a bathroom or somewhere away from the flow of people. This does not require touching me. If I say no (verbally or nonverbally), please go back to pretending I'm invisible. Cassandra Adore

• Elizabeth Durham McPhersonLeave me alone. Don’t touch me, don’t ask me questions, don’t talk about me like I’m not there. If you want to be super helpful you could bring me a glass of water, but don’t try to hand it to me, just set it down nearby so I can have a drink when I’m ready, because I can guarantee when I’m functional again I’ll be thirsty.

• Carlota Manuela Bocio DuffI want to be able to go home and to be talked to about things gently until I can get home and lie down and try to rest. 

• If I get into a meltdown I want people to help me calm down and understand that what I’m saying isn’t from my heart but from stress or upset/meltdown.

If the student is not safe or is too disruptive

If the student is actively harming themselves to the point that you are concerned about real harm, such as a concussion, needing stitches, broken bones, or something else, it’s time to act. Similarly, if a disruptive meltdown is happening in a classroom setting, it’s important for the well-being of the rest of the class that the student be moved to a quieter location.

How you do this is important! Speaking quietly, approaching gently, and showing understanding will go a long way towards supporting the student and also showing the class that this is not something to fear, rather something to support. Avoid touching the student if possible.

You can say, “Let’s get you somewhere quiet. I’ll walk you over.” Then take the student to the Disability Center, while asking the class to remain until you return. If it’s not possible to leave the class, phone the Disability Center to ask for help.

As a last resort, you can call on Campus Safety for assistance, explaining that it is not a behavior violation, but rather a student in distress who needs a gentle escort to the Disability Center. This is an important distinction!

Often, the act of leaving the difficult environment will be enough to help the student begin to regulate on their own. They should still go to the Disability Center for further support unless they specifically state a preference for going home to unwind.

Final Thoughts

How you respond to students will always inform how students respond to each other and even to themselves. Maintaining calm in the face of storms, holding a non-judgmental attitude, building relationships from the start, and incorporating inclusive principles into your curriculum will go a long way towards avoiding meltdowns altogether, and being able to handle them if they do occur.

For Faculty (and others) to consider in the month of April

April may be many things - Spring! - however, for many autistic people it is a month of near-constant microaggressions, assaults on our humanity, and resulting depression. Because, around the world, April is "Autism Awareness Month". Many marginalized communities have a month or day dedicated to celebrating their achievements, but April isn't like that. Instead, April is spent celebrating symbols and research, interventions and supports - celebrating the "brave and courageous souls who fight autism every day to make the world a better place." The same people who purport to love us and want to "help" us spend their time celebrating themselves and what a great job they are doing "fixing" us. And even, sometimes, celebrating research advances to rid the world of our kind. 

Imagine for a moment if there was a month dedicated to celebrating what a great job people were doing making you different from what you are - making sure that you "fit in" to society's norms - all in the name of helping you. 

In your classes this April, there will be students who need your support and understanding. They need you to know that they are feeling the pain of these messages. The messages are everywhere - on social media, on television, in the news, on the sides of buses, and even coming from their loved ones. Your student may be very much in touch with their pain or they may have an underlying feeling of disconnectedness and not really know why. You have the opportunity to be a safe person. One who, instead of celebrating autism awareness, celebrates autism acceptance, understanding, and acknowledgement of our humanity. 

You don't need to know who is autistic and who isn't to show this acceptance. Your every day actions and words in the classroom and out, will speak loudly to your students. Allowing for flexibility is the most important thing you can do. Understanding that your student may be emotionally exhausted from daily assaults which may not leave much energy for assignments or class attendance, and may not have the words to explain. 

Beyond that, here is a short list for the month of April:

If you do mention Autism - mention Acceptance, not Awareness. In your talk or other :

Do	Don't
Feature current autistic activists, educators, and bloggers	Don't Diagnose historical figures or people who haven't said they are autistic
Highlight neurodiversity as a positive goal	Don't Talk about interventions and supports that make autistic people "fit in"
Use identity first language "autistic person"	Don't Use person first language "person with autism"
Use the neurodiversity infinity symbol or no symbol	Don't Use puzzle pieces
Use multi-colored or red lights or colors	Don't Use blue lights or blue color
Focus on autistic people	Don't Focus on parents or siblings of autistic people

This post is not meant to be an exhaustive list of the things that are done to hurt autistic people in April, or at other times. There's plenty written about those things, and people who want to learn about it can easily find information. Here's a link to some prominent autistic voices to get you started: www.bellevuecollege.edu/autismspectrumnavigators/community-resources/ .

If you want to learn more about how to positively interact with and support autism acceptance every day of the year, here's a link to a fantastic free e-book that will start you on your journey: www.stairwaytostem.org/autism-101-an-introduction-to-academic-success/ (Disclosure: although I have written one of the articles in the e-book, I have no monetary gain when people download the free e-book.)

Thank you for thinking about how you can help your autistic students survive the onslaught of April. 

Thank you, Five Guys Burgers and Fries

It's been a rather grueling week, culminating in a big autism awareness event at the college where I work, and now on to moving at the end of the month. So, my son and I decided to head over to Five Guys Burgers and Fries on North East 24th Street in Redmond, WA to relax a bit before hitting the packing again.

While we were there, a young man, maybe in his 20s or 30s came in, with a remote controlled toy helicopter. He was very excited about this helicopter, exclaiming to anyone that would listen, "It WORKS!" He wriggled and danced and stimmed to the 80s music, and I wondered how the staff would interact with him. 

What happened next literally made my day. Each staff member greeted him by name, asked him about his helicopter, and took time out to have a conversation with him. He got himself a little plate of peanuts and a small portion of ketchup, along with some napkins, and sat down at the table next to us. We smiled happily at him.

The fry cook offered him some fries, and when he said, " a little?" asking for more, the cook said, "that's okay, it's enough" and the young man repeated, "it's enough" and took the fries happily to his seat. He continued on, eating fries and peanuts, getting up and dancing, stimming and showing his helicopter all around.

At one point he turned it on, and made it spin around, while very carefully holding it so it wouldn't take off. He and my son had a lovely exchange about the helicopter and when he exclaimed again that "it WORKS," my son and I agreed that indeed it did, and this young man was so excited with our acknowledgement that his excitement has stayed with us for the rest of the day.

I just want to say "Thank You" to Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Redmond, WA for making this social connection possible, for this young man, for me, and for my son. I will never know if this young man has a particular diagnosis of anything, but both my son and I are on the autism spectrum, and social connections while out in public are not common. So, thank you, Five Guys, for being the kind of place that welcomes and embraces everyone, and makes us all feel at home.

You made today better for two people on the autism spectrum, and I'm guessing that you don't know that you were helping people with an invisible disability while you were connecting with this young man who is so clearly your friend.

 

Memory

It was once thought that autistics suffered from amnesia, however, that theory is no longer popular. It is now believed that our curious mix of memory ability or lack thereof has something to do with weak central coherence or executive functioning deficits. It’s possible that it has something to do with the ability to process emotions as well.

Apparently, the way the autistic memory makes them really, really good at some things, and really, really not-so-good at others. And, as you already know, autistics, or people-with-autism, if you prefer are not all the same. Cognitive abilities are all over the map, even within one single person, let alone within the entire community of people on the spectrum. Personally, I find this fascinating.

So, here’s what some people who are smarter than I am think. That contextual memory is impaired in people on the spectrum, meaning autistics have a hard time processing information within its context. This would explain why my son didn’t know he could get coffee from the coffee vending machine. It would also explain why my father doesn't know where he is if there’s a new landmark along a familiar route, even though all the other context is still the same. So, this theory makes some sense to me.

This problem with contextual memory makes life pretty difficult for some autistics, and the people who love them. Some people on the spectrum, kids, especially, have a hard time knowing if something happened yesterday or four years ago. This makes it seem almost as if their memory is too good, particularly if what they are remembering is upsetting.

So, what role does emotion play? A fairly big one, apparently. All people remember things more clearly if they are emotionally aroused. Certain factors can pretty much ensure that we will vividly remember an event forever. This type of memory is called a flashbulb memory; we all have them, most likely of September 11, 2001. 

So, working on building an emotional vocabulary can be helpful.

And, last but not least, people who are self-monitoring also have worse memories, which makes sense, since their attention is divided. I know that many people on the spectrum spend a good amount of time in self-monitoring.

So, what might help work towards better memory?

1. Keep a journal, recording events with details and emotions. Parents, have a running dialog with your children about what happened today, yesterday, and what will happen tomorrow, next week.

2. Keep a calendar on the wall and use it. Using visuals is important.

3. Keep expanding your emotional vocabulary if this is an issue. 

4. Read your journal; go back over events and reminisce. This can help cement the memories. Remember that this works for bad memories, too, so try not to obsess on those, unless you really want to remember them. 

5. You could try to make it a habit to notice context in the moment. What else is around, what else is happening, is the sun warm, are the birds singing, is there gravel or blacktop on the road? What time of year is it, where are you, who are you with, how are you feeling? Use all your senses.

6. If all else fails, use a sticky note.

Accentuate the Positive

By my nature, I am wired to look for, and find, what’s out of place in my environment. What’s different, what’s wrong, what doesn’t fit, what’s not fair. 

 

However, I have learned that I am a much happier person if I focus on what’s working and look for the good. I am not Scarlett O’Hara; I don’t ignore things that are upsetting: I deal with them. I simply don’t focus on them, let them annoy me, or let them take center stage. I practice gratitude, joy, passion, love.

 

This is absolutely a learned trait, and one that I highly recommend to people on the autism spectrum. Barbara Fredrickson, a Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has done the research to prove that positive thinking works to improve our lives and relationships.  Not the blind optimism of Pollyanna positive thinking, but truly finding things to be grateful for, awed by, and delighted with. I’m looking forward to reading Fredrickson’s book, Positivity; the paperback edition is just out. You can take her Positivity Self Test  now and see how you’re doing.

 

The reason I recommend this for people on the spectrum, particularly those with Asperger’s, is that we can get caught in what I call the “Aspie Spiral.” Something goes wrong, and suddenly, everything is wrong, everything has always been wrong and everything will always be wrong. We either get very down on ourselves, or, we get very down on others.

 

Just knowing about the “Aspie Spiral” can be helpful. My son can get out of a spiral rather quickly by being reminded that it’s a spiral and that things will be better soon.

 

One thing I often tell parents is to have their children tell three good things that happened each day, and one bad thing, along with what positive steps they took to turn the bad experience around. This helps with positive thinking and with memory. As the child gets older, they can write these down in a journal, blog or personal document, however, talking about incidents with someone else, and receiving enthusiastic, honest, positive feedback is very helpful.

 

Dan Coulter wrote a terrific article called Rewriting Your Child’s Script   that is helpful for the person who ruminates on bad memories. I worked with one parent who kept track on the refrigerator of every time her son won a board game, and whenever her son lost, and exclaimed that he “never” won, she would show him the actual facts. He eventually became a much better loser.

 

So start practicing positivity and see where it takes you. Here’s a little something to help:

 

Accentuate the Positive, by Johnny Mercer

 

 

Feelings, Whoa

Many people with Autism Spectrum Conditions (thank you, Simon Baron-Cohen , in whose writings I first read this respectful term) have a difficult time defining my feelings. It’s called Alexithymia . According to the Wikipedia article, one can be born this way, or one can become this way through trauma or lack of modeling or teaching as a child. Alexithymia is marked by a lack of vocabulary for feelings, difficulty identifying physical reactions to feelings and few dreams or fantasies.

 

In a recent BBC News article , researcher Michael Lombardo from the University of Cambridge talks about a study that shows autistic brains have difficulty processing information about the self. This may very well be why you’ll receive an “I don’t know” answer when you ask your ASC loved one how their day was, or how they are feeling.

 

Many people on the spectrum, my son included, have this limited emotional vocabulary. He is happy, sad or angry. Getting him to talk about his feelings is pretty impossible, of course this could be chalked up to his age, I suppose. And Simon-Baron Cohen does theorize that perhaps Autism is simply an extreme form of maleness. 

 

Since researchers don’t yet know how much alexithymics can learn about their own emotions, we can work on it and see. As parents, and people on the spectrum, we can work on defining emotions and talking about them, to increase our knowledge, vocabulary and self-awareness. When discussing events, be sure to also include emotions that go along with the event, including small emotions and gradients of emotion. Hang up one of those “How Do You Feel Today?”  posters and use it. Be a detective when you or your loved one isn’t feeling well, although be careful not to cause them to think it’s psychosomatic every time they are ill: sometimes a cold is just a cold.

 

And please remember to be positive. This is imperative, in my opinion, for someone who has difficulty defining emotions. If we don’t know how we feel, we may as well focus on the positive, and try to feel happy. That’s my outlook anyway.