**4. Co-occurring anxiety in youth with ASD**

ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is multifaceted. Individuals with ASD evidence persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities [12]. In addition to the core deficits, individuals with ASD also struggle with many co-occurring features. Among children with ASD, it is estimated from 57.5% to 96.4% meet the criteria for at least one co-occurring psychiatric disorder [3, 23, 24]. The most recent United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report on prevalence rates of ASD suggested approximately one per 44 children (of 8-year-olds when the diagnosis can be reliably assessed, https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/addm.html). This is an increase from an estimate of one per 68 children receiving an ASD classification by the CDC I 2014 [25].
