On a snowy cold Saturday morning in March I attended Yvonne Newbold's and Mark Brown's workshop in Waterloo on overcoming the challenge of autism & learning disabilities. It was the first time I met other parents who also struggled with violent and challenging behaviour in their child with a neurodevelopment disorder. The behavior is driven from a place of extreme anxiety 'fight or flight', and not disobedience or bad parenting. It's essentially a cry for help. My greatest takeaway from the morning was how to speak slowly and calmly, with lots of thinking time when your child is in meltdown, and don't try to reason with them. At that point their brain is in shutdown and unable to process. I also learnt with the right intervention and support, the behavior can be turned around. For more information check out www.yvonnenewbold.com
Comments