[Sanddancer]

Safe sensory stimulation is a very useful tool here. It's why Temple Grandin made the much-magligned "hug box", it's why weighted blankets are useful (need to get myself one of those). It's about building a place where the stimulations and noise of the world can be filtered out for a few moments.

There's a lot of literature about how Autism, and the various spectrum disorders, like the former Asperger's Syndrome are processing disorders. That the normal filters in a brain don't form for various reasons. And if a kid is unable to create those filters and work them actively, you get low functioning Autism, because they don't have a ruleset to focus on as to what are the important details and what aren't, thus leading very quickly to a level of overstimulation and "acting out".

Course, this is my assumption from talking to some High Functioning Autistics, and my own experience as being spectrummy. Mileage can and will vary.