Page 10 - ASD & Anxiety

Supporting students

with anxiety

Schools can provide lots of opportunities for managing and
working on anxiety. A combined approach
is seen as best practice. Ideally, this
means having the student, parents,
teachers, and other professionals
involved in making plans and
setting goals (Wood et al., 2014; Lopata
and Vermeer, 2014; White et al., 2013).
Generalization of strategies and skills
is not easy for children with ASD, and
parents are very helpful in bridging what
happens in school, home and therapies/
services.

It is important that everyone has a good understanding of ASD
and anxiety and the strategies that work. After all, knowledge

of ASD and support with learning and social skills is found
to be key to the success of these children in schools (Roberts &
Simpson, 2016). Most evidence is found in programmes that are
based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) (Vasa et al.,
2014) Elements from these programmes that can be used in the
school setting are described here:

Teaching a child what anxiety is, and how it works in your brain
and body can be a powerful tool for every child (Lopata & Thomeer,
2014). Often children with ASD like science and knowing about
the mechanics of things, and you can use this to explain why they
might get overwhelming feelings that are hard to control. School
is a great place to learn this! Social stories are available to use
(see: Resources).