Anxiety and Autism In Kids Overlaps Each Other Making It Difficult To Discern

A professor at Drexel University made changes to the anxiety testing procedure they have in place to effectively diagnose anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The Parents' attentiveness in the behavior of their child is vital to the assessment because children with autism cannot express themselves well. Parents must be guided clinically also to make the test accurate.

Children with Autism may not socialize because of lack of motivation whereas the ones with anxiety just shy off from peers because of rejection fears; explains the assessment developer Connor Kerns, Ph.D., who is also the assistant research professor at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health. Anxiety must be diagnosed correctly to allow proper treatment, as per the article published by Drexel University.

It has to be considered that when the anxiety in a child is high, the focus is in surviving it undermining the essence of living. Mental, emotional and physical health suffer. Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS)  added new questions into the interview process  to determine behaviors that can be part of the child's autism or caused by anxiety, according to Psych Central.

Kerns started to develop the ASA method in 2014. 69 children with autism participated in the recent test who are suspected to have anxiety but no such testing confirmation.  All children who took part in the study completed the comprehensive evaluation and are determined to demonstrate symptoms that are clinically significant for anxiety or autism according to the ADIS/ASA interview, Kerns said.

The video- or audio-recorded interviews are verified by a blind assessor. Conclusions are then made on the child's diagnosis. The positive results on anxiety are again run through other testing methods as an assurance that the results are accurate.  This final procedure is important to any ADIS/ASA research or clinical work with young ones on the spectrum, Kerns added.

It is very important to detect anxiety among ASD children because anxiety.leads to some troubling impairment such as stress, extreme self-injurious behavior and heavy depression that result to more social difficulties and physical ailments in a long run.