Where a child or young person is struggling to manage the demands of their education setting, parents are often the first to notice the negative impact this has on their child’s well-being and educational progress. Increasing anxiety can lead to changes in presenting behaviours at home, where the child feels safe and able to express their emotions.

Increased levels of anxiety can lead to:

Excessive, anticipatory worrying

Increased checking about future arrangements and events

Difficulties with sleep - difficulties falling asleep, staying asleep or sleeping excessively

Changes to appetite - eating too much or too little

Decreased tolerance of environmental stimuli - e.g. becoming hypersensitive to particular noises or sensations

‘Over working’ on homework/ perfectionism

Refusal to complete homework

Low mood

Depression

Emotional ‘meltdowns’

Increase in physical or verbal aggression

Increase in apparent ‘rigidity’ - greater distress if, for example, carefully arranged objects or collections are moved or usual routines are disrupted

Feelings of despair

Feeling physically unwell - headache, stomach ache, nausea, aches and pains

Behaviours suggestive of an obsessive compulsive disorder (can only be diagnosed by a medical practitioner)

Deterioration of self-care skills

Extreme difficulties with school attendance; child or young person only attending school as a result of the daily efforts of parents and wider family, leading to significant distress and anxiety for everyone.

Sometimes, difficulties at school or college are only apparent at home; children and young people can be experts in masking their fear, anxiety and confusion. This can lead to school or college staff being unaware of how the child or young person’s experience of school is impacting on them. Description text goes here

For some autistic children and YP, their difficulties with tolerating and understanding the education environment are evident in school or college.

The difficulties they are experiencing lead to increased levels of anxiety, which can be communicated in a number of ways:

Withdrawn behaviours

Reluctance or inability to communicate with peers and/or staff

Visible separation anxiety

Inability (can be perceived as refusal) to attend school or college

Distressed behaviours demonstrated as anger, physical aggression and or verbal aggression.

Generalised fear of other children or groups of children

Reluctance, refusal or inability to attend all or some lessons

Fear of particular subjects, peers or members of staff

Fear of being asked to speak in class

Being unable to complete learning tasks when in lessons

Appearing ‘in a world of their own’, not engaged in learning or following instructions.

Whether autistic children are masking or demonstrating their distress at school, it is vital that they receive the specialist support they need to ensure that their sense of well-being is restored and maintained. Only then will they be able to make good academic progress and develop socially and emotionally.

Approximately three times as many boys and men are diagnosed with autism than girls and women. Girls and women typically receive a diagnosis of autism later in life than boys and men. This is thought to be in part due to the particular masking skills of autistic girls and women resulting in them being less likely to meet diagnostic criteria. Often autistic girls and women have been identified as having ‘anxious type’ personalities or have received a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder.

Kent Autism Education Service has a wealth of experience of working directly with autistic girls and young women who have found their journey through education system extremely challenging and often distressing.