Autism and Anxiety in School

Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) spend a considerable amount of time throughout their development in school settings. As such, educational environments and professionals play a seminal role in the assessment and treatment of this population. Beyond the diagnostic features, anxiety is recognized as a common problem affecting students with ASD. The presence of comorbid anxiety is often difficult to assess due to a range of cognitive, communication, and emotion-recognition deficits that characterize ASD. The treatment of anxiety in this population is equally challenging, given significant heterogeneity in symptom presentation and functional levels. Given the substantial increase in the number of students with ASD, educational professionals are being increasingly called upon to assess and treat the full range of symptoms including anxiety. This chapter describes anxiety in ASD in school settings and the assessment and treatment considerations confronted by educators and school-based clinicians. Given the lack of evidence-based school intervention models for anxiety in ASD, a number of techniques applicable to a school environment are proposed. These techniques are proposed based on their potential utility for students with ASD of varying functional levels.