Page 13 - ASD & Anxiety

(Reaven, 2009; Attwood, 2004). Doing group exercises can be fun
for all children, making the child with ASD feel more included.

It is important to combine strategies for
anxiety with teaching social skills and

problem-solving skills (Wood et al., 2014;
Ung et al., 2015). In a study on living with
ASD, children and young people described that
feeling different and missing coping skills and
social skills, increased their anxiety (Ratcliffe et
al., 2015). Teacher support and learning social/coping skills were
seen as helpful. Using modelling, role-play, direct instructions,
social stories, and feedback from teachers, school counsellors and
peers helps (White et al., 2013).

Emotion regulation problems are linked to anxiety. Children with
ASD often have great difficulty with recognizing and responding
to internal, physical experiences of emotional distress, and also
around temperature, pain, hunger and thirst. A study by Hollocks,
Pickles, Howlin, and Simonoff (2016) of youth with ASD found
that these children feel more threatened, especially in social
situations, and have high levels of chronic stress. Other studies

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