Autism, Anxiety and Behaviour in Special School

Autism and the Special School, Anxiety Management and the Promotion of Positive Behaviour.

This full day Professional Training will be a combination of a webinar presentation supported by supplementary activities. The webinar will look at the understanding of the concept of a behaviour of concern and how education professionals can forge and formulate complementary strategies to be used for the autistic child or young person. The supplementary activities will include academic papers, review of webinars and podcasts from Internationally renowned speakers and videos to support understanding. Autistic students experience anxiety in many situations, with some experiencing significant anxiety difficulties. For many, school is a major source of stress and there are some key factors relating to autism that mean stress and anxiety are more likely. Everyone shows their anxiety in individual ways, so the most reliable observations that a student is anxious are going to be made by the people who know the student best. This shows the importance of working closely not only within the family structure, but also with the school staff.

This session is an introduction to strategies that can be used to alleviate the experience of anxiety. T

his will include

• An introduction to cognitively based strategies

• How to develop student centred strategies to deal with anxiety.

Expected Outcomes Participants will:

• Understand how the difficulties experienced, including sensory difficulties, can contribute to the development of anxiety

. • Understand how anxiety can escalate and may result in an outburst.

• Develop some simple strategies to prevent the escalation of anxiety.

• Understand the basics of cognitively based management approaches.

Course Overview

• Anxiety triggers and build up.

• "On the spot" anxiety management strategies.

• Developing a "stress kit".

• Cognitively based approaches and the emotional toolkit