Cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of autism

Cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of autism

Several behavioral therapies have been tried from time to time to treat children with autism. Pivotal response training and applied behavior analysis are two of the most common. However, adults, older children, and adolescents are likely to benefit more from cognitive behavioral therapy, another important intervention for treating autism.

There have been many attempts to adapt cognitive behavioral therapy for adolescents and older children with autism. The target was also usually those suffering from anxiety, as this is a common feature in autism. The challenge was to find out whether autistic children have skills necessary for cognitive behavioral therapy to be successful. Fortunately, the response is positive. A 2012 study assessed the cognitive abilities of older children with autism and compared them to those of non-autistic children. Almost every child in the first group had cognitive-behavioral skills and could distinguish between feelings, behaviors, and thoughts. They just had a hard time recognizing emotions.

Traditional cognitive behavioral therapy requires strong language and abstract thinking skills, and this is often challenging for people with autism. Researchers have recognized this and adapted the therapy to autistic people, for example making it more visually appealing, more concrete and more repetitive. For example, a therapist may simply ask children to verbally rate their anxiety on a scale of one to 10, have a thermometer available that indicates anxiety levels from low to high, and ask participants to provide the prop for the illustration. Another strategy in cognitive behavioral therapy for autism is to focus on a child's talent and special interests that help maintain children's motivation and engagement, and to incorporate frequent sensory activities and movement breaks for those who may have under- or over-responsive attention deficits.

The researchers noted that cognitive behavioral therapy needs to address the social skills of people with autism because basic social deficits in young people with autism contribute to anxiety, which then exacerbates the teenager's social problems.

Therapy can be carried out in different ways such as family, individual, groups and even both families and groups. Group therapy has the advantage that a person with autism can see how other people struggle with the same difficulties and try to overcome them together. Social support and friendship gained through the process could be healing in themselves.

Family behavioral therapy for autism often involves parents educating themselves about their children's challenges. It also involves teaching them to encourage cognitive behavioral therapy techniques when the child is faced with a real life situation. This makes them feel confident and hopeful about contributing to a positive change in a child's life.

Researchers have found that protecting children from a potentially negative experience is often a difficult task for most parents. Autistic children usually have a history of behavioral and emotional challenges and painful real failures in the world. Their parents are often reluctant to expose the child to further failures and inadvertently limit the experiences necessary to become less anxious and more independent.

Inspired by Kalpesh Z Makwana