It’s Not Spring Fever, It’s Burnout

Students who mask at school can only keep it up for so?long

It’s that time of year?(again)

Every spring I hear from parents and school staff that the children and students are getting “spring fever”.

This may be true for some, but for disabled and neurodivergent students, it’s likely something a bit more serious. Spending 30 hours per week in a public school system that often doesn’t meet their needs — surrounded by peers who also don’t understand them — is exhausting.

For students who mask, hiding their struggles in attempts to fit in and avoid getting in trouble at school, the consequences are often internal. Camouflaging or suppressing our needs for the benefit of others is not sustainable and leads to fatigue, anxiety, and burnout.

For kids who attend school September through June, this usually starts showing up after spring break, around April or May.

After enduring eight or so months of holding it all in, working twice as hard as their peers to meet the school’s over-generalized (and neuronormative) expectations, something’s got to give.

Not to mention the sensory overload related to attending school: hot, loud bus rides; loud, crowded hallways, classrooms, and lunch rooms; flickering fluorescent lights; uncomfortable chairs, among many others.

Burnout can show up in many different ways, especially in children, who won’t have the neurological maturity or the language to understand or express what they are experiencing.

Signs of student?burnout

It’s important to remember this list is not exhaustive, and the signs of possible burnout will be different for each person.

Some of the possible signs?are:

• Disengagement, apathy
• Difficulty focusing or concentrating
• Frequently late (when they weren’t previously)
• Becoming sick more often (or needing more sick days)
• Shutting out family and/or friends, withdrawing
• Increased irritability and negativity
• Less interested in hobbies, sports, or other extra-curricular activities
• Increased anxiety and avoidance
• Exhaustion or fatigue

Old school?advice

A lot of school staff and clinicians still push parents and students to “push through” spring fever. They warn that a pattern of school refusal or avoidance can be difficult to stop.

This may well be true if it really is just spring fever. It certainly wouldn’t be helpful to allow a child to stay home whenever they want to eat snacks, watch tv, and play video games.

However, it’s very important to understand that school avoidance and student burnout are much more complex issues, and they cannot be solved by simply “pushing past” the resistance.

When a child is well and truly burning — or burnt — out, trying to play through the pain could have a significant negative impact on their health and wellbeing.

It sure as hell won’t help improve their perception of school, especially if school is the cause of their struggles in the first place. If nothing changes in the environment, then conditions cannot improve for the student.

How to (actually)?help

• Speak to your child’s school. Reach out to the classroom teacher, guidance counsellor, resource teacher, or administrator — whomever may have the most helpful information for you, and will listen to you when you tell them what your child needs.
• Maintain perspective. Children in Canada spend approximately 200 days per year in school, missing a few will not have a significant impact on their long-term education, but may have a positive impact on their mental health.
• Trust your gut. If you‘ve tried following the old-school advice and it didn’t feel right, or you felt conflicted about forcing your child to go to school, trust your parental instincts. Your relationship with your child is more important than their attendance record.
• Believe your child. This is especially for neurodivergent and disabled students, who often spend their days in environments where their needs are not met and people don’t understand them. Our kids need at least one person (hopefully more!) in their corner, and they need to know you’ve got their back.
• Seek outside support. Find someone — anyone — who is neuro-affirming and child-centred to support you and your child. They can be a partner, friend, parent group, or professional. As long as they get it.
• Let them help. If you can, surround yourself with positive and supportive people. You’ll need someone to reassure you that you’re doing the right thing, especially if your child’s school is giving you the message that allowing your child to avoid school is making the problem worse.

Learning is always happening

Educators and school staff seem to be under the impression that learning only happens in the classroom — I know they understand this is not the case on an intellectual level, but it doesn’t appear to translate when students are struggling to attend school.

Everyone is learning all the time, every day. We don’t need to be in a classroom or formal education institute in order to learn. In fact, for some children this environment is so stressful that it is detrimental to their mental health, development, and learning.

Bottom line is our kids won’t learn much if they are too anxious, stressed, distressed, and otherwise dysregulated in school. They won’t learn effectively if they don’t feel connected to their school community and don’t have a positive relationship with their teacher.

It’s much more important to provide support for our children’s mental health, regulation, and sense of connection — in fact, it’s a pre-requisite for success.

How to return to?learning

In order for a safe and effective return to school (or other form of learning), the adults involved need to dig down to identify the underlying issues. Then the adults need to work with the student to find mutually agreeable solutions and supports.

The solutions will not be found in a “behaviour plan”, which essentially manipulates the child into doing what the adults want them to do.

The solutions are found in student-focused, collaborative approaches which genuinely seek to make the student feel more supported, connected, and cared for in school.

Even if your child is not actively avoiding school, if their behaviours or words are showing you they are struggling, don’t wait until they are refusing to attend.

Dedicate time in the evenings on weekends to activities which recharge and refresh them, activities that are done simply for the sake of having fun or relaxing.

Homework can wait.

In fact, if your child is in elementary school, homework is largely unnecessary and unhelpful — but that is a topic for another article on another day!

Stay tuned…

? Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB

Related Articles

Schools Are Sensory Nightmares

Why Gifted Kid Burnout Is A Thing

ADHD and Autistic Burnout

Uncovering The Camouflage

After School Restraint Collapse

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Help for?burnout

Recovering From Burnout

Handling Summer Holiday Hiccups

That Time Camping Cured My Burnout

Avoiding Holiday Burnout

References

Desautels, L. (2020). Connections Over Compliance: Rewiring our perceptions of discipline. Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing.

Fisher, N. (2021). Changing Our Minds: How children can take control of their own learning. Robinson.

Greene, Ross, W. (2021). Lost & Found: Unlocking collaboration and compassion to help our most vulnerable, misunderstood students, and all the rest. (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Illich, Ivan. (1970). Deschooling Society. Marion Boyars Publishing Ltd.

Kohn, A. (2018). Punished by Rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A’s, praise, and other bribes. Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt Publishing.

Mavir, Heidi. (2022). Your Child Is Not Broken: Parent Your Neurodivergent Child Without Losing Your Marbles. Authors & Co.

Venet, A. S. (2021). Equity-Centred, Trauma-Informed Education. W. W. Norton & Co.

Learn more

Education Staff: Stop Gaslighting Parents

Behaviour Management Programs are Harmful & Ableist

Behaviour Plans Are For The Adults, Not The Kids

More about school?refusal

If your child is struggling to attend school, I highly recommend Dr. Naomi Fisher’s books, articles, and webinars for child-centred, compassionate, practical advice and support.