Sudden violent tantrums

[bri276]

DD is 5, rare chromosome disorder, global dev. delays, otherwise very healthy. She has never had behavioral problems beyond normal toddler tantrums and then some increased frustration and anger from communication issues, which have been difficult but manageable.

In the last two weeks, she's begun having very intense, very different "tantrums" or whatever you'd label them. The first time was because I had an ice cream cone and she had an ice cream cup and she wanted to switch. Well, we don't normally give in to screaming and tantrums so I didn't, and it grew to a frenzy very quickly, and then we heard a crunch or snap noise that sounded like it came from her mouth and scared the crap out of us (we thought she clenched her jaw so tight that she's broken a tooth- she didn't, and now we think it was probably a piece of sand in between her teeth because we'd just come from the beach). To make sure she wasn't now screaming in pain, I did give her my ice cream cone and she immediately calmed down and stopped tantruming. Okay.

The others have been about equally mundane things that she's normally become upset about but deal with (having to leave outdoor toys outdoors, leave grandma and grandpa's house when they were having fun, leave the playground, etc- transitions like that have historically been very frustrating for her, but typically I verbally acknowledge for her that I know she doesn't want to, but it's time to, give her advance warning, she might cry and fuss but is over it within 3-5 minutes max).

These are SCREAMING cries, violent thrashing, violent behavior (not unheard of in the past but becoming more and more of a rarity until these started). It's like she's absolutely panicked, furious, beside herself with rage and frustration and out of control. These came on VERY suddenly after years of toddler type tantrum behavior going away gradually. They're very disturbing to witness and very concerning. I haven't heard of anything even close happening at school- she goes to two different preschools and is an angel for them. And actually, she's great at home and with us the vast majority of the time, but these come on very quickly and last a very, very long time.

Advice?

[BookGoddess]

I don't know the answer, but I couldn't read and not post.

I have a child around the same age, but she's on the spectrum. I find my DD has more tantrums now than when she was younger. Oh the irony. But it seems to me it's more of a positive-negative. She has a lot more awareness of herself, her day to day activities, expectations others have of her, and she's also aware that she doesn't have as much autonomy as she would like over various aspects of her life. That tension leads sometimes - on rare occasions - to some spectacular tantrums. But they tend to happen at home rather than in public.

I don't know what services you get, but when kids are on the spectrum they can get a functional behavior plan to figure out ways to head off troublesom behaviors. Is that something you could ask the school to do? They could help you figure out what's the trigger for the behavior as well as ways to avoid or redirect (if possible).

[bri276]

Thanks. I will mention it to the school and see if they have any advice for me...even though they'll probably never see it because she's always perfectly well behaved for them! But they probably do have some experience with similar behaviors from other kids.