The Meltdown Battlefield: Problem Solving Meltdowns in Autistic Children

By Jennifer Imig Huffman, PhD, ABPdN

Severe temper tantrums, explosive behaviors, or “meltdowns” are a common cause of concern and referral for behavioral treatment of autistic children. Managing these meltdowns is often a challenging task for parents and teachers; however, there are recommended techniques and strategies to reducing the occurrence and severity of the meltdowns.

The first step in managing …

By Dr. Jennifer Imig Huffman

Executive functioning (EF) weaknesses are commonly associated with different childhood challenges. They are often the culprit behind many of the struggles that children have at home and school. For example, EF weaknesses are noted in children with ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, brain injury/concussion, OCD, Tourette’s, pediatric depression/anxiety, bipolar, and even giftedness. Children can have one or multiple EF weaknesses. Some children’s EF skills develop naturally on …

Children with executive functioning difficulties may show the following:

• Struggling with working independently at home or school
• Difficulty with sense of time, including getting easily lost within a task, especially if it is a preferred task
• Difficulty paying attention to tasks that require sustained effort, are complex, or are viewed as boring to the child
• Difficulty ignoring the distractions around them
• …

Sensory processing difficulties are a common concern for children with neurodevelopmental differences, but they are also characteristic of children who are gifted or who are considered twice exceptional (having a disability and an exceptional ability/giftedness).

Sensory difficulties can present as differences in how intensely the child processes the sensory information; differences in their ability to filter out extraneous sensory information; differences in how easily overwhelmed and disorganized they become …