What can school/CAMHS do for 5yo with anxiety (probably ASD)?

[Ekorre]

Finally, finally seen CAMHS. Only had first appointment for background info gathering but Dr has said there are a lot of markers for ASD although he may not reach criteria for diagnosis, yet. School have also noticed issues and started to put things in place (e.g. sensory aids, activity breaks, preparing him for changes).

I am gobsmacked after years of "he's an only child", "oh you are a single parent, that must be hard" etc.

So what do I do now? Wait to see if/what CAMHS offer? OT and SALT are useless. We had a family support person who tried to work on feelings but ds wouldn't engage with it at all.

What do your dc benefit from?

His school is ridiculously small and I think this has helped him come on socially. Academically doing fine. The main thing I am concerned about is his anxiety. He does his best at school and is then very angry/upset at home.

Following as I have a DS the same age with the same issues. We have a diagnosis but it doesn't help us deal with the anxiety/panic/aggression and distress. He also gets very hyperactive which I'm assuming is sensory overload or being overwhelmed from social situations. What have CAMHS said?

Nothing specific about help yet, just they want to do their own observations, tests etc. We've waited a year to see someone and its going to be a month between each appointment, as we are seeing someone out of area. I just want to get on and get this over with and actually start helping him.

Ds gets hyper too, its fairly exhausting.

Ds 5 got his asd diagnosis in October 2015. We have had no help at all from the NHS. DS is also at a small school which has helped somewhat but they haven't put any strategies in place. Despite his diagnosis, school thinks his behaviours are because he's an only child and that they are normal for his age. I see his anxieties getting worse and he is socially isolated out of school. He, too, gets hyper in the afternoons but i think his teacher thinks hes just naughtu. Its so bloody hard fighting to explain what he is like.

I am trying retained reflex therapy and will get an appointment for vision therapy.

I totally understand wanting to get started right away. Anxiety is a real issue for a lot of people on the spectrum and I really think there ought to be more help for it. It's so easy to see bad behaviour but if we dig a little further there's almost always a reason behind it

I've looked a little into retained reflexes, it seems to make sense but it's so crazy here I haven't the time to get into it in depth right now!

Hopefully some others will be along in a bit with some tips

Nice - RRT is the only thing that's really made sense to me. We've seen some positive changes at home but not sure about school.

sh77 are you doing it yourself or with a professional?

And how do you get them to do it? Ds is demand avoidant and I've never managed to get him to do any exercises very successfully. They do crossing the midline type things at school twice a day. They mix up the little ones with an older team leader which seems to help motivate him (he loves older boys). But at home if he doesn't want to do something, he doesn't do it.

Ekorre - with a professional. She was brilliant with ds and explained the exercise in a very fun way.

We have built it into our bedtime routine. I motivate him by using lots of positive praise and saying therapist will be very proud of him. His exercise takes less than 30 seconds.

For those if you whose kids get hyper at school, what strategies do your schools put in place to help?