You know, Aoife, what you said about the ’emotional cup’ really clicked with me. I’ve found that sometimes, for my little one, it’s less about the specific thing that sets them off and more about how much ‘input’ they’ve had that day. I started noticing a pattern: if we had too many transitions or too many new places in a short span, even a tiny thing like a sock being ‘wrong’ could trigger a full meltdown later. So, what I started doing was almost like a little daily ‘logistics check’. If we have a busy morning with, say, a doctor’s appointment and then a quick stop at the grocery store, I *always* schedule some quiet, low-stim activity right after – like just reading books on the sofa or playing with blocks in his room. No music, no screens, just very calm. It’s like a proactive ‘drain’ for the cup before it overflows. Doesn’t always prevent everything, of course, but it has definitely reduced the *frequency* of those big, disproportionate outbursts. It helps me feel like I’m not just reacting, but trying to set up the day so his little system isn’t constantly on the edge.
