Many thanks to Netgalley and Future Horizons for my copy of this book. As the parent of an autistic child, I found the advice contained in this book to be very useful. Lots of great tips for managing meltdowns and anxiety in general, much of which can be applied to non-autistic children and even to adults. A worthwhile read to parents and carers of autistic children.

This will be a good resource book to have when dealing with children on the Autism spectrum. The biggest challenge in correcting behaviors is always with understanding the cause. This book provides useful insights into some of the things that could trigger inappropriate behaviors.

I am a behavioral therapist who primarily works with autistic clients and their families. This book is a wonderful guide for parents, therapists, teachers, or anyone who is helping a person through anxiety, and with some mild modifications it could even be a good self-help guide for autistic teens and adults. It contains objective and actionable steps to manage anxiety and to understand the causes, based on the latest research and understanding of autism. The interventions address prevention, mitigation, tolerance, and coping with the overall goal of increasing quality of life by carefully balancing accommodations with opportunities for growth. The author uses respectful, humanizing, and understanding language to describe autistic people. Autistic people aren’t written about as “other”, there is no push for normalization and conformity above all else, there is no dehumanizing or belittling content. There is a strong focus on maintaining autonomy, strong relationships, and ensuring equal access.

This was a wonderful read and I will definitely use it in my practice!

This book has a gold mine of information for the parent(s) of a child with autism! You will discover strategies for identifying and reducing distracting noises, lights, and situations that autistic children are sensitive to.
You will learn why food can be a behavior trigger because of its’ appearance, taste or smell. If you can encourage your child to help prepare different types of food, they may then view food as something fun and interesting.
A child with tactile sensitivity may be able to have clothes without tags or seams as some manufacturers have started producing clothing like this.
Tactile behaviors such as rocking back and forth and chewing on pencil tops can be redirected to other types of good behavior with positive reinforcement.
A harsh or distracting type of light can be adjusted to natural light or the bulb can be changed to a softer type of light.
Social situations “Social situations are full of cues that help guide us through an interaction. Some of these are physical cues such as eye contact, body language, and the way a person is dressed. Other cues are language-based such as tone of voice, voice volume, and conversational prompts. Some cues can be too abstract or subtle, such as the use of sarcasm. Kids with autism tend to miss or misinterpret social cues and, thus, may not understand the true meaning of an interaction.” Role modeling what do or not do in social situations will help in dealing with social situations, playing games they know how to play will help, as will limiting social interactions to one or two people to gain confidence in their abilities.
You will be encouraged to help your child become less rigid, open to new experiences and feel comfortable socially by applying some of these principles.

I'm reviewing this book from my perspective as the parent of a severely autistic child.

I found the explanations of five key causes of anxiety and how these might affect children with autism useful. And the various suggested ways a parent/carer/teacher might work to mitigate these also helpful. In fact, I'd like to recommend these chapters as a good introduction to why life can be such a challenge for autistic children to those who'd like to learn more about this. I especially liked that the author reviewed these issues from the perspective of verbally able, less able and non-verbal children since an impaired ability to communicate is common to children with autism.

The suggestions of ways that the child themselves might mitigate their anxiety applied mostly to high functioning autistic children, so will not be useable by my child.

A good introductory book with some excellent places to start helping children with autism deal with issues that cause them anxiety.

I received an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review

I learned a lot from this book about how anxiety manifests in ASD kids and how to help them through it. I've been through a lot of these scenarios and I never considered any of it to be anxiety but reading this it makes a lot of sense and fills in a lot of the gaps. Definitely crucial for any parent or professional working with ASD kids, wish I had read something like this in my education/social work classes.

I work as an instructional aide in a school and there are many autistic students that I have worked with. I found the advice the author provided to be really useful and relevant.

I have read so many books on autism and this one did not resonate with me too well. I think it does cover quite a lot and I can see how others would enjoy it, but I didnt like the methods or the approaches to some of the stressors.

—-Anxiety Management (JUL19)for Kids on the Autism Spectrum: Your Guide to Preventing Meltdowns and Unlocking Potential by Christopher Lynch

July 1, 2019
Future Horizons
Non-fiction, parenting, Autism
135 pages
Rating:

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and Future Horizons in exchange for an unbiased review.

I found the book very informative. I have ALOT of experience with autism and it’s related issues, specifically anxiety. This author does a great job with breaking down the complexities of autism by focusing on anxiety, a key component. Understanding the causes of anxiety in children with autism can hopefully provide insight into their challenges and how to help. From experience, its easier to empathize when one understands. The suggestions in this book for anxiety are very specific to the autism spectrum population in particular. Unless, a person has an understanding of autism and it’s challenges the techniques listed will be difficult to comprehend. The coping skills necessary are almost opposite what one might typically do to manage anxiety.

My rating: 5/5

I have quite a bit of experience around anxiety and the causes around anxiety, but wanted to get a deeper understanding of the differences for kids with autism. I have absolutely no background on autism, so this is totally new for me. This book was quite eyeopening: it clearly spelled out different circumstances where a child may break down, and goes into the possible reasons behind why it might've happened although it might've looked like it came on from nowhere. The author goes into a lot of the common reasons of anxiety and breakdowns for these kids, which makes a lot of sense with the background knowledge he supplies throughout the book.

I found this to be extremely educational. Even for a person with little to no background knowledge on the subject, I could easily understand what was being discussed. This could possibly be of use to other populations of kids who also have issues with anxiety, such as kids with ADHD or overly sensitive children, that can be easily overwhelmed. As a layperson, it also humanizes some of what we see in public when we see children who break down, and it isn't always something that the parent can control.

Excellent ! A must read for parents and teachers.
As someone on the spectrum, I could have done with my parents and teachers reading this when I was in school.

Review is scheduled for publication date .

Very informative, great examples and techniques discussed in a very friendly easy to understand manner.

This was a complimentary copy, however, there are 2 reasons I was interested in this area

Firstly, working in a public library I have become increasingly aware of requests by parents for self-help and parenting books with regards to autism so I see this as very much a growth area. Secondly, I have a nephew who is autistic and am always interested in finding out more. I do believe this is a fast changing area of human development and we are learning all the time about new aspects of autism.

I found the subject extremely interesting. I also subscribe to the belief that anxiety is something prevalent in autistic children.

I would highly recommend not just parents with children on the spectrum but also anyone who is even vaguely touched by the condition.