CUES Group Programme

Coping with Uncertainty in Everyday Situations (CUES©) Group programme

The 8-week CUES group programme was designed by Researchers at Newcastle University for parents of young people with autism (aged 6 to 16 years).  The programme focuses on helping parents to recognise, understand and support their children with autism to manage intolerance of uncertainty.

What is Intolerance of Uncertainty? 

Intolerance of uncertainty is the term used to explain feelings of fear and anxiety when things feel uncertain.  It is something that can be common for people who have autism.

Studies suggest that a reduction in the intolerance of uncertainty is associated with reduction in anxiety and improvements in everyday functioning in children and young people.

What happens during a CUES group?

• You will be offered a free 30-minute screening appointment to make sure the group is right for you.
• Parents will be invited to attend the weekly group sessions which will either be delivered online via our secure conferencing platform or face to face in our group space.
• There will be 8 group sessions in total, each lasting 2 hours.
• Each parent will be helped to identify a specific everyday uncertain situation (target situation) to focus on and will be supported by other parents and group facilitators to try out new strategies to help their child manage in their target situation.  
• Parents will be given ‘tasks for home’ to undertake with their child in between sessions.
• Questionnaires will also be completed by parents at various stages during the programme to determine progress.  

Upcoming Dates

Our next group will run for 8 weeks starting from Monday 12th May from 10am to 12pm and is aimed at parents of autistic children aged 6 to 12.  The groups will run online (over Zoom).  If you are interested in attending the CUES group, please get in touch with us on 0131 378 9700 or email [email protected].  We will need you to complete a brief questionnaire and attend a screening appointment with one of Senior Clinical Psychologists to make sure the group is right for you.

We are also planning our future groups, which will include in person groups held in our group space at Shore Psychology.  We will also be offering groups for parents of young people aged up to 16.  Please get in touch if you would like to note interest in these upcoming groups

If you are interested in finding out more about CUES, you can read the article here. You can also download the article in PDF format