@auntie--question about anxiety in children

kcisthebombdotcom

I know you mention your ds has GAD and it is a common comorbid in autism. While I don't think my child has generalized anxiety (she does fine in new places, no difficulties at all with transitions/changes to routine) she does seem to have social anxieties. She does well at the chuck e cheese type places or gym daycare or anywhere really where there's chaos but there's no attention on her. At parties she tends to be clung to dh or I or as far from the action as humanly possible doing some sort of repetitive play (its the only time she plays repetitively--it's almost like a stim for her). Whenever she's had evals with unfamiliar evaluators she tends to cry when they start talking to her. Is some social anxiety a function of asd or something I should keep a watchful eye on and report back to the neurodevelopmental pedi at her next visit?

kcisthebombdotcom

It makes sense that its tough to call something social anxiety when she likely doesn't have social understanding. On the surface it definitely looks like a fear based response. Initially during her psych Eval, the evaluator approached her and she cried, ran to me and made me hold her. If it were a tantrum, shed be on the floor flailing and not wanting to be touched. It took a while of coaxing with me sitting next to her/highly preferred toys being brought out before she'd do anything. The schools slp came out to our house with dds slp to witness a session and when dd saw her slp she excitedly said hi but when she saw the unfamiliar slp follow behind her, she ran away and hid behind the couch. Oddly enough she doesn't always have that response. We recently got a new ot and she came to a session before we switched to acclimate dd. dd seriously could not stop staring and smiling at her--she was so distracted. I always wonder if its a tone of voice thing or something.

kcisthebombdotcom

Yeah, dd loves men. Her neuro is a male and she adores him. Her neurodevelopmental pedi and her neurologist are in the same practice and when I was leaving the developmental pedi we bumped into him and dd was thrilled to see him. He was kind enough to sit with her while I spoke to the receptionist to get her ADOS scheduled. He overheard me and when I came back to dd he was completely dumbfounded why were getting it done. I was like yeah, she's much better with men. Lol.

DDs slp resembles me so I can definitely see why she warmed up to her. The ot threw me off--while she has my hair color she's short and heavy while I'm tall and thin. She doesn't necessarily like dark haired women so it was unusual.