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Through patience, structure, and an understanding of their individual needs, children with autism can overcome daily challenges and achieve their fullest potential
With the right support, these autistic children can flourish in a world that, though sometimes overwhelming, is gradually learning to embrace their unique ways of experiencing life.
Children with autism experience diverse daily situations that combine both hurdles, accomplishments, and moments of growth. ASD produces distinct life experiences for each child because it shows individual sensory reactions along with behavioral traits and emotions. Understanding the sensory overload, sleep issues, and emotional management challenges experienced by children with autism helps improve their overall well-being. Dr Puja Kapoor, Paediatric Neurologist, Director and Co-Founder, Continua Kids shares all you need to know:
Morning Routine: A Slow Start
Autism makes mornings very challenging for children with autism. People who have sensory sensitivity face excessive challenges with activities that others handle easily, including dressing themselves and brushing their teeth. Various sensory experiences, including the sense of clothing and the sound of an alarm clock, and light intensity, often create unpleasant reactions in children with autism. As a result, transitions from waking up to starting the day become a challenge.
They require longer periods of two to four hours to fall asleep, but typical children achieve sleep in half an hour to an hour, causing sleep deprivation. The delayed wake-up state creates tiredness together with increased irritability, which reduces children’s mental focus, leading to behavioral changes throughout the day. Joint compression and deep pressure strategies help children maintain calmness early in the day, according to sensory integration methods that parents must implement.
Daytime Activities: Sensory Overload and Emotional Struggles
Children experience excessive sensory stimuli throughout daytime hours. Activities such as eating breakfast together, playing, and social interaction cause overwhelming sensory responses because children are more sensitive to environmental stimuli. Any combination of loud noises along with bright lights plus food texture might create emotional distress, which results in their withdrawal or frustration. Sensory overload occurs when cutlery clatters or strong food aromas permeate the environment, which causes the child to withdraw their attention inward.
Anxiety also plays a significant role in their daily experiences. Younger children develop separation anxiety, which induces them to grip their parents tightly while creating resistance to going to school. Children start developing social anxiety during their growth, which causes peer interactions to become a stressful experience. Anxiety symptoms in children with autism generate diverse manifestations, which include irritability as well as concentration issues and physical symptoms, such as stomach aches and headaches.
Children will receive lessons about slow, deep breathing techniques as a tool to achieve self-calming to support their emotional wellbeing. Children who experience anxiety and stress can use painting, journaling, or practicing yoga as stress-reduction activities. Parental tranquility acts as the primary source for children to learn stress-related emotional management because they learn from watching their parents while in stressful situations.
Meal Times and Transitions: The Struggles of Change
Meal times can also be a battleground for children who often dislike particular food textures and smells, along with specific flavors, so they become selective eaters. The strong reactions to food textures, such as crunchy or slimy, interfere with getting children to eat a healthy range of foods. The mealtimes of children may require caregivers to show patience through creative food presentation and selection of different textures that will appeal to the child.
Interrupting activities with sudden changes proves challenging for children with autism, since they require organization and experience emotional distress because of unpredictability. The experience of frustration leads children to display temper tantrums, together with physical aggression, when transitioning between activities. Such emotional outbursts, including weeping and vocal yelling, and physical damage, happen because children fail to meet their needs or feel consumed by their emotions.
The process of moving between tasks remains difficult because children with autism need structured routines, which become disrupted by changes or uncertain situations. The frustration experienced by children frequently leads to tantrums as well as physical aggression during activity changes. Children experience emotional outbursts by weeping while using their voice to yell and causing physical damage because they fail to meet their needs or cannot control their emotions.
Using distraction together with positive reinforcement can help manage such situations. Parents can acknowledge and reward calm behaviour, teaching children to regulate their emotions. When parents help their children identify their emotions, they will be able to express their feelings more appropriately.
Evening: Calming the Mind and Preparing for Bed
ASD children find it challenging to relax at bedtime as the day concludes. The initiation problems they face with sleep cause their bedtime process to be prolonged. A consistent and calming bedtime routine is essential to help them relax. The relaxation methods might consist of reading the preferred book while listening to soft music or using weighted blankets for comfort.
Many children also experience disruptions with the production of melatonin, which controls sleep cycles. The biological nature of this condition makes it difficult for affected children to sleep even after their bodies become exhausted. A healthcare professional ought to supervise the use of melatonin supplements as a treatment to normalise sleep patterns for such children. To establish a relaxing sleep environment for children with autism, one can use sensory integration methods together with dim illumination or muscle compression techniques.
They experience distinct life challenges that combine with developmental growth opportunities during their daily routine. Typical problems with sleep, together with anxiety and sensory overload, and emotional control difficulties, are common issues that children can overcome with proper support. Proper assistance allows children to develop and build significant relationships.
The implementation of relaxing bedtime procedures should include solutions for sleep problems through sensory interventions or melatonin supplements.
• The support of emotional control involves displaying peaceful conduct while teaching breathing exercises alongside relaxing activities to promote emotional equilibrium.
• Positive reinforcement techniques help parents address challenging behavioral outbursts, combined with emotional expression training for children.
In conclusion, through patience, structure, and an understanding of their individual needs, children with autism can overcome daily challenges and achieve their fullest potential. These difficult times lead to immense love while fostering new learning experiences along with personal growth. With the right support, these children can flourish in a world that, though sometimes overwhelming, is gradually learning to embrace their unique ways of experiencing life.
