We’re back with Part 2 of Hot Seat Number 7 with TikTok Autism Mom Zulekha Williams. In Part 1 we covered the TikTok Autism Community, diagnostics with my One Page Assessment, and receiving ABA and other autism services in a rural area. Today we discuss “meltdowns” and tantrums”, self-injurious behavior, and some feeding concerns.
Whether you call it a meltdown, tantrum, or something else these problem behaviors can often result in a dangerous and self-injurious activity like hitting, head banging, etc. For Zulekha her son’s as she calls them, meltdowns, are triggered by the loss of use of his tablet (battery dead, game or video not working, access to the internet) and many times at the sight of food, his own meal or even his parents. The behavior that results from these triggers is usually yelling, screaming, hitting, throwing, head banging and more. All lasting as she said more than a couple of minutes. For parents and caregivers, this can be incredibly stressful, but with the right work, these behaviors can get at or near 0 daily occurrences.
We want to spend 95% of our time PREVENTING problem behavior. As it currently stands, Zulekha is struggling with spending more of her time reacting. Because of lack of consistency in autism services like in-home ABA and working virtually with a BCBA, there is no adequate pairing and planning in place to prevent these tantrums. In this episode, I encourage Zulekha to go back and watch my course, No More Time Out where we focus on preventative strategies. For Zulekha’s son’s triggers, she should focus on preventing tablet problems: long chargers, backup tablet if possible, etc. Work on breaking the pattern of problem behaviors BEFORE removing and weaning off tablet time because self-injurious behavior is way more dangerous than screen time. For the feeding triggers, I suggest a feeding evaluation and medical testing, based on a lot of Zulekha’s responses I see concerns for a medical issues related to mouthing and chewing that should be assessed by a pediatrician or functional medicine doctor.
Zulekha W is a mother to a 4-year-old autistic non-speaking son. Zulekha provides support to parents of autistic children and resources through her TikTok posts. She posts TikTok videos on how she helps her autistic son gain new skills and increase his communication as an AAC learner. Zulekha has a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling and has taken the courses for parents along with reading the book, Turn Autism Around.
