Introduction
Anxiety and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are two closely related disorder that affect children and youth between the ages of 1 and 14 years. The condition has been prevailing among many minority groups in the Australia and currently it affects the majority groups. The Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded an estimate of 115, 500 of Australians, which represents 0.5 percent of the total population, had autism in 2012. The number recorded a 79 percent increase from statistics collected in 2009. The age of the victim determines ASD prevalence with high cases affecting children between ages of 5 to 9 years (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). An anxious child finds it challenges relating with others in the class. Moreover, the child experiences challenges adapting to changes in the environment and coping with the society. The discussion below discusses anxiety as one of the primary characteristics of ASD that influences the person’s participation in school and affects the learning outcome of the person. Additionally, the discussion shows a personal reflection about an encounter with a student suffering from high-functioning ASD during the teaching practice.
Literature review
Although it is not possible to measure the level of anxiety in children with ASD, the condition is very common. Anxiety disorders are some of the renowned mental, emotional, and behavioural problems that arise during childhood and adolescence. Most children show evidence of the existence of some of the characteristics of anxiety at particular points (Ozsivadjian,& Knott, 2011). Children and youths are the most vulnerable group to ASD. The prevalence changes across age groups. Children and youth between ages of 5 and 15 years are at higher risks of experiencing anxiety because of ASD. Report from the Australian Psychological Society (2016) shows one in every 160 children suffers from ASD, and the ratio of girls to boys is one to four. The survey from the Child Development Institute approximated about 10% of young people may have the anxiety disorder (Child Development Institute, 2005).
Furthermore, Gillott (2004) suggests that adults with autism are almost three times more anxious than non-autistic peers. The prevalence of anxiety among children is evident in the variant percentages of 25.2 % for boys and 19.5% of girls, which is approximately more than half of all the students across the autism spectrum (White, Oswald, Ollendick, &Scahill, 2009). The outcome of White, Oswald, Ollendick, &Scahill’s study reveals anxiety affects the learning process of students by disturbing their cognitive responses and behaviours.
It is usually difficult to differentiate between anxiety and autism because they share similar characteristics. Among the common features of ASD and anxiety are social anxiety, increased sensitivity to sensory stimuli, extensive worry, sleeplessness, and restlessness. Additionally, children with such conditions experience trouble in concentration; they become easily irritated, insist on sameness, have difficulty in conversations with peers, find it challenging to understand others’ perspectives, face difficulty in expressing their feelings and wants, and face difficulty in dealing with new situations and changes in everyday routines. The level of anxiety should be controlled at a young age to ensure it does not become a social problem for the individual when he grows up. The child is likely to become defiant of change of the behaviour at such time since they lack a proper understanding of various issues. Moreover, their bodies tend to confine to defence and are unable to comprehend what to do at specific times.
Recent research has found that children with early sensory over-responsiveness may show greater signs of anxiety as toddlers. They are likely to be the most fearful students in class and their families. They have been intimidated by fear and inability to make decisions by themselves from time to time. However, with time they master the elements of confidence, where they learn from their previous timidity. Studies comparing normal developing youth with anxiety disorders to those with high-functioning ASD suggest that communication and social deficits may bring differences in disorders. Symptoms in the repetitive and restrictive interests’ domain appear less discriminating. Also, the preservative behaviour is normally linked to the anxiety symptoms (Gadow, DeVincent, Pomeroy, &Azizian, 2010).
As the children grow, they get exposure to new ideas and ways of communication that make it easy for them to converse with their neighbours and develop strategic thinking abilities. They understand situations where they are right and why they need to act with the highest level of confidence possible and connect with the rest of the children in class as well as the teacher confidently. The continuous interactions with other students and teachers help the students break from the elements that may show fear and shyness preventing them from attaining the necessary confidence.
Symptoms of anxiety in a child with ASD
According to Mohammad (2005), victims diagnosed with high-functioning ASD demonstrate high levels of anxiety symptoms compared to those suffering from normal ASD conditions. Anyone who understands the ASD disorder can easily realize anxiety symptoms because an individual shows extreme distress when taken to different environments, difficulties adapting to changes in schedules and problems adapting to new people, such as new classmates and playmates (Mohammad, 2005).
According to Merrill (2016), more than seventy percent of children diagnosed with ASD between the ages of 10 and 14 shows symptoms of another disorder. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common disorder that affects children with ASD. OCD is a major characteristic of anxiety. Children with ASD experiencing OCD show symptoms such as intrusive images, thoughts, and worries, and the presence of non-functional and repetitive behaviours like suicidal thoughts. However, children suffering from OCD may have a bad feeling they do not exercise what they think (Mohammad, 2005).
Children who have anxiety may display both physical and behavioural signs and a range of worried thoughts. The presence of physical and behavioural signs leads to repetitive and restricted behaviours that affect the child’s concentration in class, which influences the learning outcome. Students with these characteristics are at a disadvantage because many teacher lack inclusive teaching strategies to help engage such students in class work with other normal students. Additionally, most of these behaviours are irritating and may force the teacher to send the student out of class because of causing disturbance.
Children and adults suffering from ASD show characteristic deficits in communication and social interactions. Such people demonstrate stereotype behaviour and lack of interests with activities done by parents of any other person in the society, including their peers. According to (White, Oswald, Ollendick, &Scahill, 2009), scientists and professionals have developed many interests on the relationship between ASD and anxiety in recent past years. Symptoms of anxiety such as the lack of interest in social activities and the stereotype behaviour influence the learning outcome of the child in the classroom.
Social Anxiety
Reaven, Blakeley-Smith, Culhane-Shelburne, and Hepburn (2012) revealed that children experiencing high-functioning ASD stand greater chances of developing social anxiety. Anxiety symptoms characterize first stages of developing co-occurring mental health conditions among children and youth with ASD. The impact of these symptoms is felt across different contexts and interferes with the child’s ability to engage in social activities at home, in school, or in a community setting. Youths demonstrating social anxiety symptoms are at high risks of experiencing unemployment because they lack social characteristics demanded in the workplace environment. Moreover, they experience psychiatric problems, and many end up abusing drugs.
In their study, Reaven, Blakeley-Smith, Culhane-Shelburne, and Hepburn (2012) used a Cognitive Behavioural Therapies (CBT) to test success factors among children with anxiety symptoms. The study used modified CBT interventions to establish the impact symptoms amongst children diagnosed with ASD. A group of fifty children demonstrating high-functioning ASD and anxiety took part in the study. The results showed that forty-seven out of fifty children reflected high levels of anxiety under the CBT test. The study plays a lot of significance in determining the impact of social anxiety on the social life of the individual. The CBT intervention used assists in decreasing anxiety among children and youths with ASD (Reaven, Blakeley-Smith, Culhane-Shelburne, and Hepburn, 2012).
Challenges faced in participation and engagement in a classroom
According to Russell &Sofronoff (2005), the effects of anxiety symptoms may be evident across contexts and can influence a child’s ability to participate in home, and school settings as well as in undertaking normal school activities. It is an added difficulty for children diagnosed with ASD. It causes significant challenges in their functioning, especially in their participation in school and everyday learning. In addition to general feelings of anxiety, people with ASD can also develop distinct anxiety disorders. For instance, difficulties of motivation to do tasks, social understanding as well as self-governance are evident signs of anxiety that limit the student’s level of interaction with peers.
Such students may develop an inferiority complex as they feel they are less valued and are not very competent in the society. They lack the skills to show confidence and stand against elements of defeat and failure. They are extremely sure that they cannot defeat the existing protocols as they feel that they are inferior to them. They do not possess the necessary confidence that would be helpful to them in achieving a whole lot of success. They always feel less fulfilled than their peers following their incompetence in certain social activities.
Social anxiety for students with ASD is a major element that prevents individuals from developing social confidence. They do not understand how to undertake some activities following the fear that they have developed over time. They are convinced that they are not the best in what they do, and they cannot achieve the highest level of excellence in the specific field. They are unable to follow a specific line of thought since they are not confident that they can develop ideas that can mature to the desired excellence
Personal critical reflection
In my teaching practice for the last two years, I have had limited exposure to working with children with ASD. However, in my Year 4 class last year, I had one child who was on the spectrum. The child demonstrated strange behaviours in class that interfered with his performances and interaction with other students in the school. I experienced a lot of challenges teaching the student in the first few weeks of my teaching practice since I was new to the teaching profession and to the school environment.
I had limited knowledge on working with children with ASD and no experience. The student in my class demonstrated some typical behaviour. He hated school, and would be pushed into the classroom by his father every morning. He was not interested in answering questions, like his peers, and would sit through lessons looking at a single point or fidgeting with something or drawing pictures of monsters. Additionally, he was less concerned about normal classroom activities such as participating in class discussions, asking questions or interacting with his peers. He hated coming to the hall for assembly, and would always sit alone for all his lunch breaks.
Studying and learning about the subject on anxiety and ASD will assist me to deal with my challenges because after reading the articles and the textbook, I can relate the student's behaviour with characteristics and symptoms of ASD. I have realized that inclusion plays a very important role in education, especially education for children on the spectrum. I have read about the challenges they face, what modifications can be made to overcome these challenges, and I am excited to include these in my teaching practice when I go back to teaching full time.
Conclusion
ASD and anxiety are highly related as shown in the discussion above. Children diagnosed with ASD show high signs of anxiety in different social settings. The analysis reveals that ASD affects children and young adults aged between five and nine years and it has many impacts on the learning process of the child. The paper highlighted physical and behavioural symptoms such as lack of participation in classroom activities, irritating actions, and other stereotype behaviours as main signs of anxiety demonstrated by children with ASD that affect their learning activities. On the other hand, school going children diagnosed with ASD suffer from social anxiety that influences their social behaviours. Teachers should use inclusive teaching strategies such as visual teaching, multiple choice questions, creative expressions, and creative modelling to help such children cope with others in class. The Australian Psychiatric Organization should consider developing policies that ensure autistic students faces no discrimination in class and acquires a better education.
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