autism and anxiety

A student participates in class, follows directions, completes assignments, and appears to interact comfortably with classmates. From an educator’s perspective, the student may seem to be doing well. Then the student gets home and is exhausted. They withdraw, become overwhelmed, or need significant time to recover from the school day. For some autistic students, the […]

Anxiety does not always look like anxiety. In the classroom, a student experiencing anxiety may not say, “I’m worried” or appear visibly nervous. Instead, an educator might see a student refusing to begin an assignment, repeatedly asking the same question, becoming upset when plans change, withdrawing from classmates, or struggling to enter the classroom. For […]

Most educators have experienced it. A schedule changes unexpectedly. A substitute teacher arrives. An assembly interrupts the day. While many students adjust with minimal difficulty, others may become anxious, withdrawn, or emotionally overwhelmed. For students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), predictability is often more than a preference. It is a support system. Predictable environments help […]