Assessing anxiety in individuals with autism: towards effective support

This study examined anxiety in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We especially focused on the following topics and conducted the studies: (1) Understanding of affective prosody assessed by eye-tracking methodology. (2) Anxiety and behavior of children with ASD and their mothers affected by the great east Japan earthquakes. (3) Eye-gaze patterns associated with social anxiety during conversation. (4) Support for the anxiety of mothers and children with ASD. (5) Considering the perspective of the constitutional rights to improve support and special needs education for people with ASD. Our obtained results from the studies above would provide favorable reference data for the development of effective support for ASD people suffering from anxiety.