Anxiety and Autism Spectrum Disorder
Anxiety and Autism Spectrum Disorder: We have had a success story with helping our eldest son overcome his anxiety in a situation he experiences regularly. As many parents would know, anxiety and Autism Spectrum Disorder often go hand-in-hand. In fact, anxiety is the highest co-morbid condition for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder.1 I have heard many parents say that their child’s anxiety, not the Autism Spectrum Disorder, is what impacts most on their day-to-day life.
Let me begin by stating that this is not a scientific piece, but a personal journey of how we helped our son face the anxiety he has.
A chess club, organised by Chesslife, commenced at his school in term four 2013 for those who wanted to learn the game. When I heard this, I knew it had the potential to be an amazing activity for him to learn. He is a visual thinker and I thought that the game would appeal to him. It is also very structured and rule-bound, and these are also things that he appreciates. The first challenge, however, would be getting him to go to the sessions.
When I mentioned the possibility to him, he responded with :”But I don’t know how to play chess!” He flat out refused to go. He was so anxious about the unknown, about something that had not even happened yet. Once we helped him to calm down, we explained that the point of the lessons was to learn how to play, and that the Chesslife teacher is there to help you to learn.
So Monday afternoons became chess afternoons. My patient husband would take him to the after school classes. Unlike all the other parents though, he would need to stay for the whole lesson. Most of the kids walked up to the library by themselves, and their Mum or Dad would collect them after the chess session. This would not have worked for us. I’m convinced that if my husband didn’t stay, our son would have had a meltdown. Not only would he have missed the experience, he would most likely refuse to return the next week.
We soon realised that he was actually quite good at chess, and thrived on the theory of it. As a surprise for his birthday I arranged for the teacher to give him a lesson at home. He focussed for an hour and a half, just on chess. I loved seeing his eyes light up and just soak up all that he could. This would be the first of many private lessons. He now has one every four weeks. His teacher can see his potential too.
Then it was time for him to enter some tournaments. We started out with tournaments in the Adelaide hills, both for individuals and school teams.
Some highlights of his achievements to date:
- 2015 Adelaide Hills Tournament: Most Improved Player.
- 2015 Captain of the school chess team (which reached the South Australian finals).
- 2015 Under 8 Junior Australian Chess Championships; 12 in the nation and the top SA player.
- 2016 Under 10 Junior Australian Chess Championships; 28th out of 53 competitors.
At chess tournaments each player is only eligible to win one trophy, and cannot, for example, win trophies in two different age divisions. I have it on good authority that if you want a trophy, the one to win is the ‘Most Improved Player’, because it reflects the most improvement in the twelve month period – and this is what he did last year.
My son’s school is also a part of Children’s University, where children can attend extra-curricular activities and receive awards when they complete pre-determined numbers of hours. In October last year, our son was the first Children’s University graduate of his school. He was awarded his first certificate for 30 hours of activities – mostly for chess with Chesslife.
It is remarkable to see him thriving at something that teaches him so many things. Chess has a particular etiquette, and you need to remain composed when you lose a game. It also helps to develop creative, strategic and forward thinking. Not only has it helped his concentration, but his maths too. As parents we are big believers in nurturing what our sons enjoy; chess is certainly that activity for our eldest. Seeing him overcome his anxiety to enable him to compete in mainstream tournaments at national level is nothing short of awesome.
- White, S. W. et al, Anxiety in children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Clinical Psychology Review, vol 29 (2009), p 216-229.