Modifying Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy to Address Anxiety in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
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Date
2022-10-26
Authors
St. Joseph, Stephanie
Journal Title
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Anxiety disorders are one of the most commonly re-occurring co-occurring diagnoses of children with autism, affecting approximately as many as 84% of children with ASD (Chalfant, et al., 2006) as opposed to 13% of children without autism (van Steensel et al., 2011). A growing body of research indicates that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an efficacious approach for the treatment of anxiety disorders in typically developing children, as well as with children with ASD (Wood et al., 2009). The proposed research will aim to examine the urgent need of addressing bidirectional anxiety and ASD symptoms through the use of CBT for middle childhood students (ages 7-13), with additional caregiver training. A manualized CBT program will be administered to students with an ASD diagnosis and elevated anxiety symptomatology. Modifications to the manualized program derived from previous research (Attwood, 2004; McNally Keehn, 2012) will be made to address specific characteristics of the ASD population, such as using concrete language, using visual materials, and integrating the students’ specific interests. There will be a focus on the behavior aspects of the CBT because of known problems with cognitive inflexibility and executive functioning in the ASD population. The findings of this study will improve our knowledge regarding the utility and preliminary effectiveness of an adapted caregiver-mediated CBT intervention to address the anxiety symptomatology of school age children with ASD, and if the intervention is effective, will increase the number of feasible interventions addressing anxiety for children with ASD.
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Keywords
anxiety, autism, cognitive-behavioral therapy