Research has shown that about 30 percent of those diagnosed with autism have a co-existing clinical phobia, fearing dogs, and other small animals.
Although your son's reaction sounds more severe than most, many people with autism struggle with a range of fears, phobias and worries. These can range from a debilitating fear of, say, spiders or the dark to chronic anxiety about making mistakes or being late.
Autistic people often have a much stronger fight-or-flight response and we tend to feel emotions, including fear, much more strongly than other people and so are more likely to be instinctively frightened by a large dog.
Summary. Research shows that autistic people prefer interactions with animals over humans and that 80% of autistic children have participated in pet therapy.
Common conditions associated with anxiety for children with autism include: Phobias, or intense, irrational fears of specific things. In children with autism, such phobias can arise from heightened sensory stimulation such as loud noises (for example, fear of popping balloons at an early age can develop into a phobia).
The most common unusual fears in three or more children with were toilets, elevators, vacuum cleaners, thunderstorms, heights, and visual media (characters in or segments of movies, television shows, commercials, or computer games).
Morag Maskey and colleagues note that anxiety is one of the most common problems for individuals with ASD, and that many individuals with ASD have specific phobias—such as a fear of dogs, elevators, airports, or balloons—that interfere significantly with daily life.
Science fiction and fantasy are often of great interest to autistic people. Depending on their interest levels and abilities, people on the spectrum may learn every detail of a particular "universe," write their own stories, watch and rewatch movies, read comics, attend conventions, or even make their own costumes.
Dogs, cats, rabbits and guinea pigs are not just cute companions, they're also great for helping autistic children with their social and emotional development.
An autistic child's physical appearance is normal. She may not like to be touched or held. She may have strange, repetitive behaviors. She may seem to be in her own world and lack interest in other people.
Your child with autism may enjoy having a pet nearby. It may help reduce anxiety and give him/her a sense of companionship. Many children with pets show an increase in self-confidence as well.
Autistic children often experience higher levels of anxiety than their peers. It can be difficult to diagnose and treat anxiety disorders in autistic children, in part because of the high degree of variability in their underlying abilities and presentations.
Research suggests autistic people are more prone to experiencing anxiety and estimates that up to half of all autistic people experience high levels of anxiety on a regular basis. If you or someone you know is struggling with high levels of anxiety, there is support and help available.
Your child might get upset if too much is happening around them, if they find a particular noise overwhelming, or if the light is too bright. Autistic children can get frustrated if they're expected to do something they don't have the skills for, like getting dressed independently.
Many autistic people experience hypersensitivity to bright lights or certain light wavelengths (e.g., LED or fluorescent lights). Certain sounds, smells, textures and tastes can also be overwhelming. This can result in sensory avoidance – trying to get away from stimuli that most people can easily tune out.
When an animal accompanies a child on the spectrum, they laugh, talk, smile, and participate more. Animals serve as a conversation starter to ease social communication. They boost feelings of self-confidence and well-being, significantly reducing the feelings of loneliness people with autism often face.
According to Autism Parenting Magazine, cats help children with ASD improve their social skills. Caring for a cat helps children with ASD learn empathy and compassion as well as teaching responsibility. Petting a cat relieves stress and anxiety not just for the child with ASD, but the whole family.
More recent research has used the house mouse (Mus musculus) to model autism because it is a social species. Other strains of mice used include mu opioid receptor knockout mice, as well as Fmr1 knockout mice; the latter are also used as animal models of Fragile X syndrome.
Anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders. Communication challenges. Difficulties with emotional regulation. Executive functioning problems.
Amaral: The percentage of kids who increased in severity between ages 6-11 was higher than that of other ages. We theorize that could be due to the many increased social demands that may lead people to withdraw, as well as the development of anxiety, which can increase at that age.
Kids with autism experience “deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to the absence of interest in peers (DSM-5).”
Many autistic people have intense and highly-focused interests, often from a fairly young age. These can change over time or be lifelong. It can be art, music, gardening, animals, postcodes or numbers. For many younger children it's Thomas the Tank Engine, dinosaurs or particular cartoon characters.
Toddlers with autism show less fear when confronted with something scary than do typical children or those with developmental delay. This lack of fear may explain why toddlers with autism often run into traffic or deep bodies of water.
Childhood disintegrative disorder.
This was the rarest and most severe part of the spectrum. It described children who develop normally and then quickly lose many social, language, and mental skills, usually between ages 2 and 4. Often, these children also developed a seizure disorder.