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

对于一半的自闭症患者，也就是那些有智力障碍（ID）的人，研究几乎没有提供任何关于精神疾病的见解。开发焦虑干预措施是自闭症社区的优先事项，但进展主要集中在没有ID的自闭症（ASD）上。该项目旨在识别患有自闭症的儿童的焦虑，这些儿童可能很少或不会说话。使用参与式研究方法将确保其与ASD+ID儿童的需求相关。该项目提出的问题是：哪些非语言行为和身体唤醒模式与焦虑有关？自闭症的特征——如沟通能力、重复行为、兴趣受限和感觉敏感性——与高度焦虑之间有什么关系？还有，哪些家庭因素和更广泛的环境因素将特定情境的儿童与普遍焦虑的儿童区分开来？将与家长、教育工作者和治疗师进行焦点小组和访谈，以更好地了解和记录ASD+ID行为。将分析短期和长期的数据、观察到的行为以及关于儿童自闭症特征和环境的报告。研究结果将使研究人员和非专业社区成员能够更好地识别和理解与焦虑相关的非语言表达和环境。研究结果也可能指向可能适合ASD+ID儿童的焦虑干预措施。

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.