Again, given her autistic traits, that wouldn’t surprise me. I know my Autistic kids don’t cope well with noise, crowds, too much movement around them or hectic situations, and many also have a greater need for personal space.

I had a student shut himself in a store cupboard because he was unable to cope with some chaos occurring outside of my classroom. The poor lad became totally overwhelmed, and needed to be coaxed out. Obviously, his Autism was more extreme than Ali’s, but they probably both find the same things triggering in terms of their sense of stability.