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

对于一半的自闭症人群，也就是那些智力残疾（ID）的人，研究几乎没有提供关于精神疾病的见解。开发焦虑干预措施对于自闭症社区来说是首要任务，但进展集中在没有ID的自闭症（ASD）上。该项目旨在识别患有ID的自闭症儿童的焦虑，这些儿童可能很少或没有言语。参与性研究方法的使用将确保其与ASD+ID儿童需求的相关性。该项目问：什么样的非语言行为和身体唤醒模式与焦虑有关？孤独症的特征，如沟通能力、重复行为、兴趣局限和感觉敏感性，与高度焦虑之间有什么关系？还有，什么样的家庭和更广泛的环境因素可以区分特定情境的孩子和普遍焦虑的孩子？焦点小组和访谈将与家长，教育工作者和治疗师进行，以更好地了解和记录ASD+ID行为。短期和长期的唤醒数据，观察到的行为以及关于儿童自闭症特征和环境的报告将被分析。结果将产生洞察力，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背景。结果也可能指向焦虑干预，可能是适当的ASD+ ID儿童。

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.