I have to add when we are in the throws of a meltdown with DS6, it is often enough to just acknowledge his feelings or to help him put words to his feelings. For example when he was having all his issues in PS, coming home crying every day over little things, I said to him, "I am sorry you are feeling so frustrated. It must be really hard to have all these overwhelming feelings about things others don't see as "big deals". This took my perspective of 'his overreactions over little things' out of the equation and gave him the sense that no matter what I was here for him. We had to deal with the emotions at the time. Later we discussed how we could deal with it better next time. Today at the table he said about his little sister having a meltdown, "I remember feeling overwhelmed a few months ago. It felt like a giant volcano building inside me and all of a sudden it would blow. I couldn't stop it. Now I know I need to let out the steam once in a while to keep it from blowing." Talk about insight....
