Development of speech and language is usually delayed and limited in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. In some cases, there is a possibility that the child cannot even express their basic needs like hunger, pain, and frustration through words. This can be very overwhelming and anxiety-inducing for the child.
Behaviors as a Form of Communication
This deficit in speech can make the child to communicate through certain behaviors like shouting, screaming, pushing, crying, biting, and self-hitting. Mostly, parents, teachers, and relatives label such behaviors as ‘bad behaviors’ rather than looking it as a form of communication. For example, a child who cries and screams in social gathering might be asking for a quiet space. If a child is rolling on the floor or hitting others might be telling that he is hungry or is having pain in some part of his body.
Gentle Parenting Approaches for Better Communication
For parents it can be very challenging to understand. But, parents should try to track behaviors like what happened before, during, and after the reaction. For example, did the child start crying as soon as he was taken to a noisy gathering? Did he stop crying when parents tried to calm him down or immediately after being taken to a calm place?
For convenience, parents can try to make notes of this tracking because writing down can reveal patterns of their children. Moreover, it is extremely important for the parents to handle their children gently and with patience in such meltdowns because this will help the children to change their behaviors from unacceptable behaviors to healthy ways of communicating.
