The effectiveness of self-management interventions for children with autism—A literature review

Abstract

In 2009 the National Autism Center published its initial National Standards Project (NSP) report detailing a list of existing treatments for individuals with autism. Recently, the report was updated and was made available to the public in April 2015. The 2015 report divided treatments into three categories: established, emerging, and unestablished. Among the 11 treatments identified as established, self-management interventions for children with autism were included. Although self-management was found to be effective, the NSP did not evaluate the extent to which this treatment has been studied in natural settings versus clinical/laboratory and mixed settings, nor the social validity of the treatments. Having knowledge on the effectiveness of a treatment in the natural setting and its social validity can assist teachers and parents in making better decisions regarding the adoption of a treatment. The purpose of this review is to extend the NSP report by evaluating the social validity of self-management interventions for individuals with autism, evaluate the extent to which these interventions have been conducted in the natural setting (as opposed to a clinical setting), and to provide a second evaluation of the methodological quality of these studies. Results of this review suggest that, self-management interventions for children with autism are effective in natural, clinical, and mixed settings. However, few studies have provided a formal evaluation of social validity. There are also some limitations to the methodological quality of the studies that should be considered for future research.