when did tantrums become 'meltdowns' ?

[paintinmyhairAgain]

this seems to be a thing nowadays 'ds had a meltdown in tescos' er, okay so he lay on the floor and started screaming and yelling, nuclear reactors can have meltdowns, kids have tantrums because they can't always do what they want / have what they want. it just seems to be a faddy expression until another equally silly expression comes along to replace it. [disclaimer i've had 6 dc includ. special needs, so i am well versed.
hard hat finally on

Thanks for clarifying, Theory, wasn't entirely clear in your first post. Some other posters certainly seem to be claiming that meltdowns only happen in the case of ASD, and that they are always sensory in nature. Good to hear you don't think that way.

Theory - how can you tell if someone else's child is having a meltdown or a tantrum? It's not for you to decide. You don't know their base level behaviour.

I think i am changing my point of view from earlier

My 8 year old ds (not autistic, but has a genetic syndrome with autistic features) shouts and screams and explodes a lot. Sometimes about things not going his way, he screams if he has to wait for anything, he screams if no one will play with him when he wants, he screams when he has to have a bath or hairwash, he will also hit, kick, spit, bang his head. He will act irrationally and start shouting in public, random 'angry' phrases he has heard (which ate usually not what he means at all) He gets emotionally overwhelmed by things he can't control (like laughing, people chatting, someone bring late, not getting his own way eyc eyc) and he will throw things, shout and hurt us and then be terrified and sob for ages.

His LD CAMHS support worker has used the terms tantrum, in crisis, meltdown....I'm not sure if compartmentalising them by different names would help. I know we try and work out the triggers, sometimes they are like volvanic explosions of anger, sometime like fight or flight fear induced panic and sometimes like 2 year old temper tantrums (ie still shit)

I thought this piece from scope was good, it also uses meltdowns and tantrums interchangeably www.scope.org.uk/support/tips/behaviour/tantrums

master I’m not an expert but usually a tantrum can be halted with intervention, a meltdown can’t. That needs far more careful handling and the only intervening I do is ensuring my child, others and the surrounding area is safe, then I just have to let the meltdown run it’s own course.

Until this thread I have used meltdown and tantrum interchangeably. I have never heard it used before in a way that would indicate it was sorely for children with SN.

I dislike attempts to overly police people's language because I think it is a losing battle and can rob our language of its poetry and nuance. Plus you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of annoyance when others don't conform to your opinion.

That said, I think other posters have made a useful distinction between the two terms that are helpful. A tantrum is deliberately causing a scene to achieve a goal. A meltdown is a loss of control. A tantrum can turn in to a meltdown.

Agree with the majority of poster that meltdown is SEN related and something you can try to avoid but can't stop it in its tracks, and most children have tantrums and not meltdowns. I think it has been appropriated because gentle parenting types are strongly averse to to the word tantrum.

Meltdowns and tantrums are totally different. My children are autistic and can and do have both. Meltdowns don’t stop even if the issue is fixed and the child can not be reasoned with at all.

My toddler has tantrums. My 8yo ds has meltdowns. She doesn't have any sensory issues, no SEN. But he has meltdowns when he is totally overcome by emotion. Tantrum doesn't fit it, he's not doing it to get his own way. I had no idea that meltdowns were associated with ASD or SEN of any kind. To my mind, it's a descriptor of a child who is struggling to manage under a complete overload of emotion.

Meltdowns have always been a thing, and so have tantrums ...as a mum with 2 of SEN it does wind me up when used wrongly.

Very different things

I have meltdowns. My DC have tantrums.

Btw meltdowns can easily napped to NT people,kids I.e trauma and phobias.

*happen

I think claiming that only children with ASD can have meltdowns is shockingly ignorant of the many challenges facing children who have been through trauma, abuse, or have other medical conditions, disabilities, behaviour disorders or meltdowns caused by medication. And that's the tip of the iceberg of situations in which a child can have a more visceral response than just a tantrum

^^ THIS

Another 1994 reference to emotional meltdown by an adult.

Book published in 1995 advising adults how to avoid emotional meltdown.

I found a 1986 regional newspaper article talking about how to avoid "meltdown fatigue."... I think the origins of the term are in Cherynobyl (1986) and it was used for many yrs to describe adults wigging out b4 the SN community picked it up & tried 2 make it their special word.

Not sure there are any mentions of children at all, or SN, & meltdown, before mid or late 1990s.

*1989 usage.