Event summary
Date
Start Time
End Time
St Joseph's College (The Bish), Galway, Galway
Autism and Anxiety Management
Post Primary aged autistic students experience anxiety in many situations, with some experiencing significant anxiety difficulties.
This session is an introduction to strategies that can be used to alleviate the experience of anxiety in autistic students. This will include an introduction to cognitively based strategies and how to develop student centred strategies to deal with anxiety.
This will include:
-
An introduction to cognitively based strategies
-
An introduction to relaxation-based strategies
-
How to develop student centred strategies to deal with anxiety.
Expected Outcomes
Participants will:
-
Understand how the difficulties experienced by autistic students, including sensory difficulties, can contribute to the development of anxiety.
-
Understand how anxiety can escalate and may result in an emotional dysregulation.
-
Develop some simple strategies to prevent and respond to the escalation of anxiety.
-
Understand the basics of cognitively based management approaches.
Course Overview
-
Anxiety triggers and build up.
-
“On the spot” anxiety management strategies.
-
Developing a stress kit.
-
Cognitively based approaches and the emotional understanding
Location
St Joseph's College (The Bish)
Nun's Island,
Galway
Galway
Get Directions
Joan McDonald
Following many years teaching in mainstream classrooms, Joan worked on individual planning in centres for adults with learning disabilities and those with mental health struggles.
She, then, became one of the first SENOs in Ireland, observing and providing school supports for students with atypical needs across eighty rural schools.
While studying for an M.Ed. in Autism, Joan was taught by and met a variety of autistic adults, which ultimately led to her own autism assessment. Prior to meeting such a diverse range of autistic people, Joan would only have recognised autism in people with profound and complex support needs.
Joan is passionate about using students’ interests to support autistic learners of all levels of cognitive ability to access education and contented lives.
She currently works on a variety of projects with agencies such as Middletown Centre for Autism, Dublin City University, Nua Healthcare, Fingal Libraries. In recent years, creating and delivering the Posauteen and Posaudult courses to help autistic people understand and advocate for themselves has been a major focus of Joan’s time.
Event summary
Date
Start Time
End Time
St Joseph's College (The Bish) , Galway , Galway