My daughter's teacher has told me that she gets very anxious at break and lunchtime. Is there any way of helping her to overcome this?

School breaks - when children traditionally learn to run off their stress - can be the most stressful and frustrating time for a child with autism. They are given instructions, rules and a timetable to guide them through the rest of the day, but breaks are unstructured and it can be difficult for someone with autism to know what to do during this time.

Playgrounds and dinner halls are also often noisy and crowded places, with lots of people moving around and talking loudly. This can be daunting for somebody who is not aware of the social rules of break time.

Below are some suggestions that may help your daughter overcome her difficulties. We have also written a book aimed at staff in mainstream education on this topic called Challenging behaviour and autism: making sense – making progress, which you may find useful.

Support workers

Your daughter might find school breaks especially difficult because one-to-one support workers often take their own breaks at this time. However, if your daughter no longer needs support in certain lessons - but is experiencing high anxiety during break times - could the hours be restructured so that her support worker is with her during breaks?

Playground games / routine tasks

Setting up a number of different playground games that everyone moves around will bring some structure to breaks, as well as reducing boredom from playing one game for the whole playground time.

There are a number of websites suggesting playground games, many of which have video clips which you could watch with your daughter so she knows what to expect in different games:

- www.gameskidsplay.net
- www.playgroundfun.org.uk
- www.indianchild.com
- www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk
- www.familyfun.go.com/playtime

Your daughter could also have some tasks to do in the dinner hall, such as giving out cutlery or making sure everyone has a drink, which would add further structure to her lunch break. However, take care that this is not seen as a form of punishment and does not set her apart from her peers too much. Do other pupils have lunchtime responsibilities too?

Buddy benches

Some playgrounds have buddy benches for children who are having difficulty making friends, or having a hard day. Decorations or signs should distinguish a buddy bench from other benches in the playground.

Other children are appointed as buddies and given a badge to wear to indicate who they are. Their job is to keep an eye out for anyone sitting on the buddy bench who feels sad or lonely and needs someone to cheer them up. A buddy can chat to them on the bench, or invite them to play a game. Having a number of children share the buddy role will ensure that any child using the buddy bench socialises with different children and does not become too reliant on one person.

Circle of friends

Some schools use breaks and lunchtimes to teach social skills to children with autism, which can be done by using approaches such as circle of friends. The four main aims of this approach are to:

  • create a support network for the child
  • provide the child with encouragement and recognition for any achievements and progress
  • work with the child to identify difficulties and devise practical ideas to help deal with these difficulties
  • help to put these ideas into practice.

Your daughter might benefit from her school adopting such an approach.

Stress scales

Your daughter could indicate her anxiety to a member of staff by using a help card or a visual stress scale, such as the traffic light scale, thermometer or 1-5 scale (for further information, please read the advice given to a parent whose child exhibits different behaviour at home and at school). Stress scales can be used as a secret code between the pupil and the teacher, which might be useful if your daughter does not want to draw attention from her peers.

If your daughter indicates that she is at the high end of her stress scale, there should be a quiet, calm place that she can go to calm down, either in the playground or in the school. She may also want to cut out external noise by listening to music.

Relaxation techniques

Relaxation techniques could also help your daughter to recognise and reduce her anxiety before it becomes overwhelming. Techniques might include breathing deeply, stretching, or counting to three (Buron, 2003).

Other children may prefer something more physical such as jumping on a trampoline, kicking a ball or using a punch bag. There are a number of books that help children learn how to identify stress and teach relaxation techniques: see our 'Recommended reading'.

Other ideas

Long periods of time in the playground may also challenge your daughter. Perhaps the school could agree that she only has to play in the playground for the first half of the period – and if she is successful during this time, she could be rewarded with quiet time in the library or time on the computer? This would need to be structured so your daughter knows what the activity is and where to go.