Autistic burnout – Help pupils avoid long-term overwhelm
Autistic and neurodivergent advocate Joe Fautley suggests ways to support autistic pupils so they can avoid burnout…
- by Joe Fautley
- Autistic and neurodivergent advocate
Autistic burnout is a form of extreme, long-term exhaustion and overwhelm. It’s triggered over time when the stress of coping with life’s demands exceeds the autistic person’s ability to cope.
They may lose the ability to carry out everyday tasks, lose skills they usually have and experience multiple sensory difficulties.
Every day, we have to manage the sensory discomfort, overwhelm, social challenges, executive dysfunction, exhaustion from masking and social confusion that comes with being autistic.
It’s no wonder we’re so often exhausted. Our energy is precious, and can be depleted fast. Recovering from autistic burnout requires rest, reduced demands and taking time out, so that we can prioritise self-care, set boundaries and seek adjustments.
The bucket analogy
To better understand autistic burnout, imagine an autistic child or young person holding a bucket that gets slowly filled up with various events, and social and sensory experiences throughout the day.
Too many activities, too much change, too much sensory stimuli and too many demands will fill the bucket very quickly.
When those demands and events exceed the capacity of the bucket, it will start to overflow – which is when meltdowns or shutdowns may happen.
These aren’t the child or young person’s fault; they’re caused by stimuli in the child’s surrounding environment, or interactions with people around them exceeding that child’s capacity, leaving their energy and overwhelm with nowhere else to go.
As a result, supporting your autistic pupils by finding ways of keeping their levels below capacity and manageable is extremely important.
Providing support to avoid autistic burnout
It’s important to not only offer us support, but to also advocate for us. Having an awareness of the stigma and discrimination we face in society is key to providing good support and managing burnout – so consider taking the following steps.
- First, learn about autistic masking. Try to adapt your interactions so that the autistic person doesn’t have to suppress their autistic traits.
- It’s also helpful to make your classroom – and school – surroundings as autism-friendly as possible. This ensures that responsibility for this doesn’t fall solely on individuals with autism alone.
- Focus on the autistic student’s strengths and qualities where they excel. Reassure them about how important these are, both to themselves and the lives of others around them.
- It’s also important to try and understand an autistic person’s triggers, to help them remove themselves from stressful situations.
- Finally, accept their experiences and validate their feelings and needs.
Adjusting your communication
One way to get a better grasp of autistic-specific needs is to adjust to an autistic person’s preferred way of communication.
This could involve respecting their communication preferences, be they verbal, written or visual, because it’s through creating a supportive environment that you can help autistic learners fully recognise their strengths.
Joe Fautley is an autistic and neurodivergent advocate, currently working full-time at the National Children’s Bureau. He has over ten years of experience in SEND advocacy work, including co-delivering training across England and presenting at conferences. Hear more about Joe’s personal experiences and key advice for professionals in an episode of the SENDcast podcast. Read more about Autism Acceptance Month.
