Psychosocial interventions for social communication, repetitive, and emotional-behavioral difficulties in children and young people with spectrum disorders: an update on effectiveness and the role of caregivers

Abstract

A number of time-limited psychosocial interventions targeting social skills, internalizing and externalizing difficulties have been developed for children and young people with ASD. Increasingly more evidence is emerging that such interventions are effective in reducing difficulties and improving skills. However, large variability between studies and large individual heterogeneity in outcomes have been reported. Furthermore, there are concerns about the limited generalization of learnt skills. For example, what might be learnt in a training program in a clinical setting may not generalize to the school or home setting or even from one person to the next. In addition, experiences and difficulties in childhood are likely to be different from those in adolescence or adulthood and learnt skills to cope with such difficulties may not be transferable across different developmental periods. Furthermore, very little is known about potential mechanisms of change following these interventions. One possible effective ingredient to improve outcomes might be the active role and involvement of caregivers. In this update review paper, we summarize the current empirical evidence for the effectiveness of time-limited psychosocial interventions for children and young people with ASD, examine how parents are involved in these interventions and the scientific evidence for the inclusion of caregivers in these interventions. Keywords Autism spectrum disorder, intervention, social skills, comorbidity, CBT, mindfulness, parents/caregivers