Dealing with violent outbursts

Hi Ruth. This child should have his/her own therapist, in addition to a therapeutic environment. His/her providers or parents should share with you how to take care of him. What is the child's treatment plan? What medications is he/she on? An adjustment to medication might be a first step to reduce frequency of outbursts. You can help by keeping a "diary" of outbursts, frequency, and triggers. That will help everyone see any patterns or common triggers.

My daughter with high ACES score became very violent when she hit her tween years. Her therapist used heart rate variability (HRV) training with her to reduce her anger and learn to regulate (you can look for an app called HeartMath), and then worked with a neurotherapist to do neurotherapy to reduce activity in the brain's amygdala (fight/flight center). It takes time, and she continues on medication, but she can now go through daily activities without punching a wall or a person.

Finally, as far as your immediate question as to how to handle this child in the heat of the moment, using your words to help him/her express rage might diffuse a bit. You don't have to get him/her to talk, but you can express for the child: "I see that you're very upset. When you saw that there were not computers available, you felt very angry (or left out, or frustrated...)."  Our kids don't now how else to express their rage (often legitimate, given their pasts), and by validating the anger you can give him/her tools to use feeling words.

Have you considered clearing the room, leaving only you and the student left in the room to try to resolve his anger?  Sometimes, the "sudden" change of environment is enough to spark some conversation IF you have someone you can call to manage the rest of the kids.  Arrange it in advance. The element of surprise (when the room is emptied) might be enough for him/her  to see that you are concerned about the safety of both the student AND the rest of your kids. 

Great feedback here already! I just want to add that the more angry a person becomes, the less able they are to think.  As the amygdala turns "on," the frontal lobe turns "off" and the person goes into fight, flight, or freeze mode.  I'm glad to hear that you don't try to touch this young person because that would likely make the situation worse.  One of the best things you can do is try to reduce the stimulation in the immediate area, use a soft soothing voice, or don't talk at all (this can sometimes agitate people further because of the stimulation). I would suggest meeting the parents and therapist involved with this young person in order to create a behavior plan.  This plan should include triggers for anger and interventions that the youth and staff can use when the youth has a low, medium, or high level of anger. Best of luck and thank you for your commitment to helping this individual!

I love these answers. Clearing the room - what an interesting concept. That WOULD take some doing, as I work with kids in middle and high school, and the other half of the building is K-5... so the other staff would have to be "in on" it. It might be seen by the other teens as punishment for THEM due to misbehavior by the one. But it is an interesting concept.  I love that I can get help from you all here. Thank you. 
My goal is to help each kid in my care become able to manage their anger, sadness, or any other emotion, and to never feel judged by me for HAVING the emotions. We've made HUGE strides with some very troubled kids. This particular kid has told me that I am nice, and (again, interesting) that they appreciate me for telling them THE TRUTH. Makes me wonder if other adults have attempted to placate them with white lies. When not in an agitated state, this child shows love for me. When agitated... wow. The look on their face is one of those "if looks could kill" experiences that leaves you wondering if an alien took over for a minute. 

Martial arts actually has good data on reducing violence. It might seem pardoxical, but it works. You get all the rage out of your system and learn there is always someone bigger, and  that you have to be calm to win the fight / get what you want.

I think you are on the right track looking from an allergy reaction perspective. Allergies and sensitivities to any of the trillion  compounds in our food, air and clouds ... can trigger a great diversity of chain reactions in one's body and mind.

As someone on the homestretch of conquering 50 years of extreme chronic allergies I would recommend you work with this child to help them

1. connect with their natural breathing at all times
2. identify the patterns of reaction which take place in their body so they can begin to identify the early stages of a reaction pattern and take steps to correct while they still can.

I have many more teachings on this topic and would love to hear your comments so I can decide which others to share.