Transitions

Scenario A:

It’s Monday morning.  You wake up, shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast.  Equipped to face the day and a new week, you hop into your car, snag a cup of coffee in the nearby drive through, and embark on the commute to work.  This is the same adequate and reliable routine you have been practicing for years.   Upon arrival to the office, you settle in and commence working on a project you left unfinished on Friday.  Your boss interrupts your current activity and assigns you a new project.  You casually comply, temporarily putting your current project on hold while you contend with the newer and more urgent task.  It’s not a big deal.   You have no problem transitioning from one task to another one.  You are Neurotypical. 

Scenario B:

It’s Monday morning.  You wake up, shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast.  Equipped to face the day and a new week, you hop into your car, snag a cup of coffee in the nearby drive through, and embark on the commute to work.  This is the same adequate and reliable routine you have been practicing for years.   Upon arrival to the office, you settle in and commence working on a project you left unfinished on Friday.  Your boss interrupts your current activity and assigns you a new project….you flip out.   A thousand things are going through your head right now.  You were knee-deep in another project.   You are unsure how to complete the newer project.  Don’t they know you were already busy and you already have a million things to do?!   How can they expect me to just change projects like that?! Unbelievable!  You snap at your boss, who now asks to see you in his office.   Embarrassed and disoriented, you reluctantly comply.  What just happened?   That one slight speed bump in your daily routine, that one little detour, that one tiny request to shift your attention from your current project to a new one, created a disastrous response within you.  You are Autistic. 

You see, folks on the Spectrum have a difficult time transitioning between tasks, circumstances, and events.   This hardship spans across a variety of environments and situations.   We Autistics crave sameness and routine.  We actively pursue consistency and order.   And when our patterns of thoughts and behaviors are interrupted, we recoil from it.  A deviation from our routine can be a catalyst for undesirable behaviors, anywhere from negative thoughts and feelings, crying, and withdrawal, to verbal altercations and physical responses. 

Transition happens throughout our daily lives.   At school, students change assignments and subjects several times within a given class period.  Students morph from the classroom to the cafeteria to the playground to the gym and back to the classroom.   Frequently, teachers and school staff are able to set up daily routines and rituals that our Autistic students can fall into, some with guidance and others on their own.  However, transitioning from one task to another does not always go so effortlessly.  For instance, a student who is using a computer to complete a math assignment online may struggle to remove their attention from the current activity and lead into the next.    High school becomes tough, as there are few natural routines and even fewer teacher-made routines, resulting in chaos in the mind of the Autistic individual.   And substitute teachers… nightmarish for many on the Spectrum at any grade level!  

At home, we transition from sleep to wake, home to school, school to home, TV to dinner, dinner to bath time, story time to bed, and back to sleep to wake.   Within each activity there are smaller routines and transitions that transpire, such as a routine for brushing teeth during a routine for preparing for bedtime.   A child might visit the home of a friend or relative over night, and upon return have to readjust to make things steady once again.  We transition to and from the car, to and from the grocery store, to and from the park and restaurants and gyms and practices. 

And then there are the major transitions, moving from house to house, city to city, graduating from one school to another, and going from job to job.   These transitions occur over time, and so do the effects of the instabilities of them. 

Some of the behaviors that might be evident when a person is struggling with a transition are similar to (or might even include) those of a meltdown.  An Autistic individual may withdraw from others, seek sensory input, or seek a comforting person or item to help balance their wavering world.  They may show irritability, anxiety, or anger upon forced shift in attention or unexpected change.

What can be done to help our Autistic peers in times of transition?  There are a variety of strategies, and the ones you choose to select will depend on the individual and their response to the tactic.   One straightforward rule of thumb is this: the more advance notice of change given, the better.   Much of our anxiety and inability to shift attention comes from the new, the unexpected, and the unfamiliar.  The more notice and clarification provided, the more manageable and uncomplicated the transition will be.   Some tools that can help include visual timers and visual schedules.  Being aware how much time we have to complete the present activity, and knowing what activity will follow the present one, can help ease some of the apprehension and dread.   Using countdowns can help, as well as task completion lists.   Using the strategy of “first/then”, in which a person is told what they will do now and what will follow, can be powerful.    Having a dependable, steady routine in place and following it closely, with planned time for transitions, can help, too.   However, it is important that Autistics be given the opportunity to practice unexpected transitions in a controlled and safe manner.   Plan for “pop transitions”, and demonstrate to the person that the change in routine is safe, as well as teach strategies for regaining personal control. 

Growing up on the Spectrum, I really grappled with transitions.  One distinct transition I recall is a time when my family was on vacation, visiting some relatives who lived about a six hour drive away.   I was relishing in spending time with a cousin whom I was (and am) extremely close to.  He was like another brother to me, and we didn’t get to see one another nearly as often as we would have liked.   We played video games, talked and laughed, and teased our younger siblings.   Hoping to delay the inevitability of my leaving and returning home, my cousin and I concocted a shenanigan of a plan in which he could return home with us and stay over spring break.  It was a sure fire proposal.   Or so we thought.  We were denied our request and I was forced to leave without him.  The six hour journey home in the car was engulfed with my sobs, screams, wails, cursing, head-banging, thumb-biting, and withdrawal.   There was nothing that could satisfy me.  My meltdown wasn’t due to the fact that he couldn’t come home with us, nor was it caused by the idea that I was told “no”.  Rather, it was the feeling that my world was out of control.  First of all, my plan made absolute and undeniable logical sense TO ME.  I was blind to the points of view of the adults in charge.  In addition, I didn’t KNOW when I could see him again.  I didn’t KNOW how much time we would have next time.   It was all of this unknown that fueled my enduring, six hour Chernobyl moment.  I don’t know what age you might have pictured me to be when reading this personal account.  Maybe 8 ?  10?  12?  No.  I was sixteen years old.   Sixteen and unable to handle transitioning from one moment to the next.  Sixteen and Autistic. 

If you are a parent or teacher reading this, be mindful that those on the Spectrum struggle with transitional moments daily.   Implement routines that are safe and work well for all.   Have us be part of the creative process when designing routines.  What you think may work well may make no logical sense to us.   Strive to find out WHY we like to do things a certain way or in a certain order.  Give us as much forewarning as possible when there is a transition approaching.  Be patient.  If you are on the Spectrum, create routines for yourself.  Share those routines with the ones who care about you and work with you, so that they can do their best to help you.   Know that transitions are inevitable.  Seek healthy and attainable ways to keep your world in balance.    Just hold on tightly, be patient, and ride it out.