Interventions for the Treatment of Self-Regulation Disorders in Children with Autism: A Narrative Review

Autism spectrum disorder is one of the most common developmental disorders among children that emerges in early childhood. These children have disturbances in self-regulation at various levels including physical, sensory, mental, emotional, and social levels. However, there is a clear link between self-regulation and language as well as learning and overall development. Therefore, before we can target a child's developmental skills, we need to know how the child is regulated. This article aimed to review the resources to study interventions for the treatment of self-regulated disorders in children with autism spectrum disorder.

 This was a narrative review study. To find studies related to the purpose of the research, a search was performed on English databases of Ot seeker, Google Scholar, Pubmed, using the keywords autism, intervention, and self-regulation management, and Persian data base of Scientific Information Database (SID) using autism and self-regulation Persian keywords. Finally, 18 related studies were selected based on the inclusion criteria.

 The literature review showed that interventions related to the treatment of self-regulation disorders in these children include drug therapy, interventions based on sensory processing and sensory integration, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapies, types specialized in massages, horseback riding therapy, group interventions, and Chinese medicine.

It seems that the selection and application of a specific type of intervention for each child with autism spectrum disorder is dependent on his/her mental age, severity of autism, and the child's environment. Factors related to the individual, interaction, and environment affect the child's ability to self-regulation.