Spotlight on masking

Posted on in

Source: provided by FASD South West

When “I am fine” means “I have just learnt to blend in to survive.”

Is your child exploding after school?

When children return home from school their ‘lid may fly off’, or they may freeze, due to having had to mimic or hide how they really feel inside.

An experienced professional should spot these signs in school where a child might be tapping under the table, where they might be kicking the table or say they need to go to the toilet often to get away from the noise or are twitching or moving regularly, or they might be very still; just imagine how exhausting all this must be?

It’s powerful to recognise this if you are seeing lots of episodes where your child’s lid is flying off, or aggression. You may see a ‘chameleon from the classroom‘ who changes its colours to keep safe and survive.

“This great visual resource from Beacon House on ‘masking’ should be on billboards”

says one parent who describes what she sees when her daughter comes out of school.

This resource can be shared and discussed with schools and professionals to help explain and look at providing strategies to why a child or young person might not ‘show’ their needs in front of them.