How to Teach Emotional Regulation in Autism
“Everybody smile and pretend like you’re having a good day!”
How many times has this been said before a family picture, reunion, or even said as a quick reminder before running into a doctor’s office with kids and teenagers in tow? We want everyone to see the positive image of our families and replay again and again in their minds all the happy smiling faces surrounding us. This desire for positivity is healthy and having a positive, comfortable environment to raise children, teenagers, and then finally, your adult children in, is a great privilege and goal to have. But what about the days that aren’t so great? The days where it’s raining, and you’re frustrated because doctors are running late and dinner won’t be ready on time. This flux of positive emotions to negative emotions is a normal part of life, however often there is a disconnect when it comes to modeling this change in front of our children as they get older.
The Challenge of Autism and Negative Emotions
We know that those with ASD are often rule-bound and operate from places of typically black and white thinking unless otherwise coached or taught. This type of thinking has its advantages, but one of the disadvantages is the simplistic thinking that positive emotions are good and negative emotions are bad, despite the fact that negative emotions are a normal part of human life.
What is being connected and what needs to be differentiated are these sad/angry emotions and problematic behaviors. Harmful actions that stem from these emotions are often the things we want to shape and change, but this comes across sometimes as teaching the emotions themselves are harmful and should not be present. This, in turn, leads to internal conflict and the child denying emotions they are told are “not ok” to experience.
What do we do with those bad days? We don’t want to allow harmful behavior because it’s how they “feel” like acting. The goal doesn’t always have to be the happy smiling faces we see on postcards either. What we need is to be able to help our young adults know what to do with the feelings they are experiencing, and assist them to recognize that their feelings are heard and allowed. That means we need to understand what to do with those feelings of our own as well.
How to Help Your Child Handle Negative Emotions
We can use the simple formula of:
Negative Emotions + Positive Strategy Tool = Neutral/Appropriate Behavior
When we catch ourselves feeling overwhelmed, stressed or angry, we need to be aware of our responses and the behaviors we are modeling in front of ever watching eyes. They won’t know that negative emotions are ok until they see it first being modeled by trusted adults around them. Remember, we are working with a learned habit, so it takes time to change.
Clients showed intense reactions when I started modeling and verbalizing what healthy responses to negative emotions looked like in adults. For the clients working on this skill, I would make sure we had a strong working relationship first, and also be in a safe place where they could express themselves.
If that client asked how my day was I would respond honestly and, if true, say something along the lines of, “I’m not having the best day right now. But I’m glad to be with you, and it helps me to focus on what we are working on. I also know I’m going to (insert coping strategy here) later so things should turn out ok!”
I was directly contradicting a long held habit and belief and they reacted how many of us do when our beliefs are challenged, with discomfort, demonstrated everywhere from surprise to extreme anger.
These advances are what we are focusing on obtaining, and it’s important we realize the things that may be limiting us and them to accomplishing that next step of success. Therefore, it’s important when your child or teenager is going through a rough patch and expressing frustration to respect those feelings and respond in a healthy way.
How to Improve Emotional Regulation in Autism
Let them express what they are feeling (establish limits if necessary, ex: “You can communicate how you feel but without yelling and name calling.”
Validate that what they are experiencing is normal (ex: “That makes sense you’re having a bad day, that’s understandable.”)
Help them figure out coping skills to know what to do with these feelings (ex: “I know you want to hide in your room all day, that makes sense, but since you’re angry why don’t you _______” )
Starting this process can be tough at first, just like establishing any new set of expectations or behaviors. It’s important though this problem is recognized, so we have adults who are comfortable with themselves and able to communicate in a healthy, mature way.
If you or your child are experiencing difficulties, regulating emotions, we can help. Empower Behavioral Health offers various applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy services across the state of Texas. Contact us today to learn more and get started.