Autism and Resilience

I have been paying attention lately to how the children I work with have poor resilience. To the average person, when something doesn't go right or to their expectations, they can often shake it off and think "its better than nothing" or "next time will be better if I practice more". This process of accepting an outcome different than what was expected is limited in children with Autism. I can recall many (it feels like thousands) of times when executing a common task with a child and one simple error or slip causes an emotional upset. This can be caused by actions such as misspelling a website URL, putting the wrong mitten on, dropping food, tripping, the inability to grasp, etc. How can I prevent the child from becoming upset? Seems that no type of reassurance seems to help, only distraction or time passing. I wonder what happens internally with the child's thoughts. Do they blame themselves for lack of skill when they make a 'mistake'? Do they put negative blame on the person or object for not 'working' properly? What type of long term effects to these thoughts pose? This must effect how they cope in the future. You and I experience imperfect and upsetting moments to learn that not everything goes to plan. That is a process the brain goes through in order to gain coping skills which ripple into the emotional and intellectual aspects of being human. It is an integral component to maturing, connecting/relating with others, adapting to new environments, the willingness to try novel things and most importantly: self-efficacy (writer's opinion!). Focusing on resilience is a priority trait for children with Autism. Any increase in their resilience level means a decrease in negative thoughts and therefore behaviour.

*Note: I am not stating facts but reporting my observations in this post. The lacking of resilience is a known characteristic in people with Autism.*

A thought on Autism

I work with children who have issues coping with their emotions. Many of them have autism and the ability to communicate may be very difficult because of the way they think and interact. Often, when a child I am with is in a state of anxiety and anger I have no idea what triggered the upset feelings as the slightest thing could have been the cause. A flickering light, a sound, clothing that feels itchy to them....any type of sensory pain and they can show some intense anger. (It is important to understand here that these children are NOT spoiled or short tempered. What may be a minute bother to us may be extremely painful and unpleasant experience). As a worker who works with the child, it is my goal to understand what makes each child tick and what their likes and dislikes are. A new client may take a long time to figure out. Any information, even if it seems like nonsense (ie "doesn't like to wear gloves but will wear mittens") can be a very important piece of information that will make your job easier and the child considerably happier.