Using evaluative frameworks to examine the implementation outcomes of a cognitive behavioral therapy program for autistic students with anxiety within public school settings.
Regular school staff can run a flexible CBT anxiety program and see autistic students take part in class more often.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pickard et al. (2022) asked teachers, counselors, and aides what it felt like to run “Facing Your Fears” in public schools. The team ran focus groups and interviews after the 12-week CBT course ended.
Staff had no mental-health license. They worked with autistic pupils who also had anxiety.
What they found
Workers said the program was easy to tweak and fit into busy school days. They saw kids join class activities more often and speak up without melting down.
No one dropped the program. Teachers kept using the anxiety tools even after the study ended.
How this fits with other research
Morrison et al. (2017) ran the same “Facing Your Fears” lessons in Singapore schools and also found staff liked it. Their 2017 paper tested if it could work; the new U.S. paper shows how to keep it running.
Camodeca et al. (2020) list many roadblocks that stop autistic pupils from joining class. Katherine’s study gives one clear road opener: teach staff a quick CBT routine.
Keefer et al. (2017) warn that kids who hate uncertainty gain less from CBT. The new study did not track that trait, so teams should still screen for it before they start.
Why it matters
You do not need a licensed counselor on site. Train aides or teachers with the simple Facing Your Fears manual, let them bend the lessons, and watch anxious autistic students jump into class talk. Start small—one group, one lunch period—and use staff feedback to shape the next round.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Cognitive behavioral therapy helps to treat anxiety symptoms in autistic youth, but it is difficult for families to access cognitive behavioral therapy in the community. Training school providers to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy may help autistic youth and their families to access these programs. Unfortunately, we do not know how cognitive behavioral therapy programs can be delivered by school providers and how these programs help the autistic students who access them. This study addressed this gap and was part of a larger study that looked at the effectiveness of Facing Your Fears-School-Based in 25 public schools. The study goals were to understand whether Facing Your Fears-School-Based helped students and the factors that made it easy or difficult to deliver Facing Your Fears-School-Based in schools. Thirty providers participated in interviews guided by the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance framework. Participants shared information that fell into several major categories that included (1) delivering Facing Your Fears-School-Based to many different students; (2) the positive impact of Facing Your Fears-School-Based on students' school participation; and (3) plans to continue using Facing Your Fears-School-Based. School providers also shared that Facing Your Fears-School-Based was easy to use for non-mental health providers and reported adapting Facing Your Fears-School-Based to meet student needs. The results of this study suggest that Facing Your Fears-School-Based may help autistic students and highlight the importance of using mental health programs in schools that are flexible, able to be adapted, and that are able to be used by many different types of school providers.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2022 · doi:10.1177/13623613211065797