Wednesday Webinars Series - 28.01.26 - 25.03.26

Autism and Personal Care

Some autistic children and young people are reluctant to engage in personal care activities due to increased anxiety. This anxiety can be caused by several factors including heightened sensitivity to the sensory input involved in the tasks, uncertainty of what is expected and difficulties in planning and sequencing the activities.

This training presentation will examine a range of personal care tasks, including

• hair washing,
• showering and
• teeth brushing.

Factors which can cause anxiety around these activities will be explained. Suggestions will be made for accommodations and strategies to support the child or young person in engaging in these self-care tasks.

Autism and Managing Worries

Autistic children and young people are more likely to experience anxiety than their non-autistic peers, this anxiety can also be experienced more intensely and more often than other children.

Managing anxiety includes identifying anxiety triggers and recognising anxious feelings. It is also important that we develop supports for managing anxiety, this often includes relaxation techniques, use of structured environments and visual practices.

Supportive practices to help your child or young person manage his or her worries can be an effective anxiety management tool. This includes techniques such as worry time and worry jars.

This training will;

• Help to understand common worries experienced by autistic children
• Provide approaches to support children communicate and express their worries
• Offer increased understanding of concepts such as worry time and the use of worry jars
• Encourage how to support a child to release worries