From the Wellbeing Team

Anxiety in autistic children and teenagers

Autistic children feel many of the same worries and fears as typically developing children.

But autistic children might also worry or feel stressed about things that are less worrying for other children. These include things like:

• small disruptions to their routines or new sensations they feel in their bodies
• unfamiliar or unpredictable social situations
• situations where it’s hard to know what other people are thinking or feeling
• their own thoughts and feelings, especially when these cause unfamiliar or unpleasant physical symptoms
• lack of access to their special interest.

When autistic children and teenagers learn practical skills to reduce their anxiety, it can have a positive effect on their daily lives.

Signs of anxiety in autistic children and teenagers

When autistic children get worried or anxious, the way they show their anxiety can look a lot like common characteristics of autism – stimming, special interests and resistance to changes in routine.

Also, because autistic children have difficulty recognising their own anxious thoughts and feelings, they can’t always tell you that they’re feeling anxious. Instead, you might notice an increase in challenging behaviour.

For example, your anxious child might:

• have more trouble sleeping
• have meltdowns or emotional outbursts
• avoid or withdraw from social situations
• do things to hurt themselves, like head-banging, scratching skin or hand-biting.

Anxiety is a natural part of life and something that everyone experiences at some stage. But there are things you can do to ease your child’s worries and encourage your child to manage their own anxiety levels.

Anxiety triggers: how to identify them in autistic children and teenagers

Finding out what makes your autistic child anxious is a first step in reducing your child’s anxiety and helping them to manage it.

Because autistic children and teenagers can have difficulty with understanding and managing emotions, you might need to read your child’s signals and work out what makes your child feel anxious or stressed.

Some of the common triggers for anxiety in autistic children include:

• changes in routine – for example, not going to a weekly piano lesson because the teacher is sick
• changes in environment – for example, a new house, new play equipment at the local park, or furniture in different places at home
• unfamiliar social situations – for example, a birthday party at an unfamiliar house
• sensory sensitivities – for example, sensitivities to particular noises, bright lights, specific flavours or food textures
• fear of a particular situation, activity or object – for example, sleeping in their own bed, going to the toilet, balloons or vacuum cleaners
• times of transition – for example, a new school year, the start of secondary school or the start of puberty.

Once you’ve worked out the things that make your child feel anxious, you can figure out the best way to help your child manage their anxiety in these situations. This might include:

• helping your child learn to recognise what anxiety feels like
• encouraging your child to use relaxation and calming strategies
• creating visual tools to help your child through anxious situations
• giving your child opportunities to practice handling anxious situations.

It also helps if other people who look after your child – for example, childcare workers, teachers and family members – also know what makes your child feel anxious and how they can help your child with managing anxiety in these situations.

You might be able to help with your child’s anxiety by sticking to routines and keeping your child’s environment as predictable as possible. Try to minimise changes to routine and prepare your child for them if you can. You can also work on helping your child learn to handle changes to routines.

Alison Warner

Acting Assistant Principal - Learner Engagement and Wellbeing