Emotional and behavioural problems in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Maskey et al. (2013) mailed a survey to families of 863 UK children with autism. Parents checked boxes for common emotional and behavior problems like tantrums, anxiety, and hyperactivity.

The team also asked about the child's language level and school setting. They wanted to see if these factors changed the pattern of problems.

Just over half of the children—53 %—had four or more frequent problems. That means one in every two kids you see is likely juggling several tough behaviors at once.

Problems looked different depending on how well the child could talk and where they went to school. Non-verbal children and those in special schools showed slightly different clusters of issues.

Yorke et al. (2018) pooled many studies and found the same link: extra behavior problems in autism raise parent stress. Their meta-analysis actually includes the Morag data, so the two papers fit like puzzle pieces.

Salazar et al. (2015) narrowed the lens to preschool and early elementary kids. They reported a whopping 90 % met criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder. The Morag survey shows the same storm clouds but across all ages.

Menezes et al. (2021) went a step further. They linked specific problems—like irritability and withdrawal—to drops in quality-of-life domains. Morag tells us how common the problems are; Michelle tells us why that matters day-to-day.

If half of your clients with autism carry four-plus behavior concerns, brief screens aren't enough. Plan longer assessment blocks, ask about GI pain (A et al., 2014), and prep parents for stress (Giulia et al., 2015). Build goals that tackle the top two problems first—usually anxiety and irritability—because easing those gives the biggest lift to both child and family.