Some 'symptoms' you treat the same, others you don't.
In our case ADHD-like symptoms are treated the same, regardless of a secondary ASD diagnosis, save for the meds (non-stimulants seem to work better than the normal stimulants).
Anxiety-like symptoms, IMO, should be handled differently with an ASD kid. Their anxiety is often very logical and well thought out, so combating it has to be as well. For us, personally, we actually handle his anxiety pretty much opposite from how I think you'd handle it with a non-ASD kid. We are very blunt and un-sympathetic to his anxieties (his are usually about abstract things like not making straight A's is going to mean he'll be homeless as an adult). We make straight-forward local arguments as to why he shouldn't be worried about whatever he's worried about and that seems to work a lot better than being sympathetic and understanding.
I think, if a child has ASD it needs to be taking into consideration whenever you are working with any ADHD or anxiety symptoms, but it doesn't always mean you should do anything different than you would with a neuro-typical child.
Last edited by epoh; 11/12/12 01:16 PM.
