Identifying Anxiety in Children and Adolescents with Autism and Intellectual Disability in the Community

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Research has provided little insight into mental illness forhalf the autistic population, namely those with intellectualdisability (ID). Developing interventions for anxiety is apriority for the autism community but progress has focusedon autism (ASD) without ID. This project seeks to identifyanxiety in autistic children with ID, who may have few orno spoken words. Use of a participatory researchmethodology will ensure its relevance to the needs ofchildren with ASD+ID.The project asks: What non-verbal behaviours and physicalarousal patterns are associated with anxiety? What is therelationship between autistic traits-such ascommunications abilities, repetitive behaviours, restrictedinterests and sensory sensitivities-and high levels ofanxiety? And, what family and wider environmental factorsdifferentiate children with situation-specific from thosewith pervasive anxiety?Focus groups and interviews will be conducted withparents, educators and therapists to better understand anddocument ASD+ID behaviours. Short-term and long-termarousal data, observed behaviours as well as reports on thechildren's autistic traits and environments will be analysed.The results will yield insight that may enable researchersand lay community members to better identify as well asunderstand the non-verbal expressions of and contextsassociated with anxiety. The results may also pointtowards anxiety interventions that may be appropriate forchildren with ASD+ID.