An energy account

The activity

With an autistic teenager, list what uses up her energy and what gives it back, and plan time to recover before she runs out.

What it is for. Many autistic young people use a lot of energy getting through a school day, and it often doesn’t show until they get home or reach the weekend. Writing down what drains energy and what restores it makes the pattern visible, and lets her plan time to recover, on her terms.

• The first step. Explain the idea in a sentence: “Some things use up your energy and some things give it back. If we can see which is which, we can plan the week so you don’t run out.”

When to get help. This is a way of planning, not a treatment. If her low mood doesn’t lift, she loses interest in things she used to love, withdraws from everyone or stops going to school, talk to your GP and to the school’s SENCo. Your GP can refer her to children and young people’s mental health services. Don’t let the idea of burnout delay that. If she tells you that someone is hurting her, that she is hurting herself, or that she doesn’t want to be alive, stay calm, thank her for telling you, don’t promise to keep it secret, and act that day, using the routes under “If you need help right now”, at the foot of every page.

The other four steps, and your part in it, are in the library.

It goes with

• Neurodiversity, and the Conversation with the School. For parents whose child has been working harder and longer than other children to do things that come more easily to them.
• When Reassurance Stops Working. For parents whose child is anxious and can’t be talked out of it, however often the adults around her try.

The first chapter you open here is free to read in full.

Free on this subject

• Autism. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.
• Neurodiversity. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.