Hi, my son suffers with anxiety and has school refusal. I find it hard to get him in most days. I would like some advice on how best to manage his anxiety. Can doctors help?.
Hi, my son suffers with anxiety and has school refusal. I find it hard to get him in most days. I would like some advice on how best to manage his anxiety. Can doctors help?.
How does he usually deal with situations which are too noisy for him? Many of us use noise cancelling headphones, I personally prefer sticking 1 airpod in my ear and have some music playing, it drowns out some of the background noise and also helps with my anxiety, I've done this in school for the last 3 years so school should be accepting if that's something he wants to try.
Sounds like the laptop is a positive, glad he's found something which helps
Have you tried having a visual representation of when he will need to change activity? Like a sandtimer etc. Which shows when he has 5 mins left of break so he can slowly get his head round that.
Sorry the GP hasn't been very helpful. Sounds like school really want to support him, they just aren't sure what they can do, at least they want to help.
You mentioned struggling with social situations, and school is obviously a highly social place. Have school given him a quiet space he can go to if he doesn't feel like socialisaing like the library or somewhere?
Alisha xx
Chloe
I would strongly recommend that any parent of school age children contact Pinpoint Cambridgeshire, especially their Events which are mostly on Zoom. See https://www.pinpoint-cambs.org.uk/pinpoint-events/ The Friday morning Tii Coffee chat is Particularly Helpful. It is a charity run by volunteers mainly for Cambridgeshire but all are welcome. It is very well moderated by parents who understand and "get it" as they have been though it themselves. I can vouch for it being a very safe place
Hi,
That sounds a tough situation for him and for you.
I would suggest talking to him first. Offer him to write how he's feeling down for you and for the school. The school should do their bit to help make him as comfortable as possible.
Once you know what is making him anxious you can all work together and help him feel less anxious.
School isn't a friendly place for people with autism unfortunately but hopefully you and the school can help him enjoy it a bit more.
Wish you luck with this.
By far the best place is to join one of the Friday Zoom Chats at https://www.pinpoint-cambs.org.uk/pinpoint-events/ It is a charity run by volunteers who get it because they have been there
Thankyou for your reply. He says the classroom is too noisy, there is to many people and he can’t concentrate on his work. He also struggles with social situations and changes in routine. And writing so he has the use of a laptop. It’s also the the change from home to school on a morning and break times back into class. I’ve been to the gp and to be honest it was a waste of time, said they can’t do anything about his anxiety till he gets diagnosed and said it’s upto the school to help him with his anxieties at school. So no help really and the school are at a loss of what to do as they feel like they have put everything in place for him.
Hello NAS84722,
I'm sorry to hear that you have been experiencing this with your son. You may like to have a look at the mental health section of our website which has useful links to information and advice about a range of mental health issues: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/mental-health
You may find the following page of particular interest: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/mental-health/anxiety
The following page contains a lot of helpful information about education for a child with an autism:
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/education
This includes information regarding getting extra support for your child in their education setting.
You can search for schools that cater for children with an autism spectrum disorder on our Autism Services Directory:
https://www.autism.org.uk/directory
You may want to contact our Education Rights Service who provides information, support and advice on educational provision and entitlements. Please see the following link for further information:
https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/help-and-support/education-advice-line
If you need support with an appeal against a decision about a child or young person’s educational needs, you might want to contact our Educational Tribunal Support Helpline:
https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/help-and-support/tribunal-support-line
All the best,
ChloeMod
Hiya,
Sounds like life is pretty tough at the moment for you both. Do you know what he is anxious about? Is it the other students? the work? etc. Once you discover what's causing the anxiety about school it will make it easier to come up with a solution to help him back in. Talking to his GP might help however that might increase his anxiety so perhaps suggest it and see how he reacts
Alisha xx
P.S. feel free to private message if you ever want to chat
Never confront. I can recommend Pinpoint Cambridgeshire which is supposed to be for parents in Cambridgeshire. They run a zoom coffee chat (Tii hub) on a Friday morning where you will be able to talk to others who have been there and are there and who "get it". Google "Pinpoint Cambridgeshire Events".
