6 year old - extreme phobias

[OneSillyHazelDreamer]

Hello, this is my first time posting here so I hope I’ve done this correctly.
My son is 6 (next week) and in year 1 at school. He’s awaiting an autism diagnosis. He has intense fears and phobias of the strangest things, some examples

• the song wheels on the bus
• baby dolls (example baby annabel)
• toys that move and make noise (walking, barking, pretend puppy for example)
• lullabys
• golidlocks and the three bears
• specific movies
• etc

He‘s has these fears from as young as I’d say 2 however it seems to have gotten worse and starting to affect his life. We cannot go places where we predict he may see this things (play groups, garden centres, Xmas displays etc)! When we are in a new environment, I can see the anxiety beaming off him, he is on constant high alert incase we see any of the above. I have tried my best to just avoid visiting places if I know it’ll upset him however it’s coming to a point where we cannot avoid forever, for example he’s currently learning Goldilocks at school therefore cannot be completely avoided. He has never experienced any trauma or stand out event that would explain these phobias i am assuming it is linked with his autism however I’m not 100% sure. my question is, is there some kind of therapy or something similar that can help with this? If so, who do we contact for help? Would it be the GP or would it have to be private? sorry to ramble, thanks for your time!

Is there a specialist advisory teacher visiting school? That might be a good starting point.
My advice would be to start with the one causing the most difficulty Try speaking to the SENCO.

I have experience of teaching a non verbal autistic child who would literally claw my face with his nails if the song Wheels on the Bus came on or was sung in a group.
We decided that he couldn’t cope with the uncertainty of which verse came next. There are so many versions often in random order.
We made a song board where he chose which verse came next. Gradually this helped by giving him order and control. We worked towards others in class choosing a verse eventually. Just an example.

Some of the examples will be sensory. I expect he dislikes the noise of some toys and the unpredictability. Lullabies he probably just associates with bedtime.
Has he had a sensory needs assessment from a specialist OT?
Noise cancelling headphones might help and social stories bespoke to his fears and aversions.
Some fears and phobias come and go and others can be longstanding.