Mindfulness for Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Caregivers: A Meta-analysis

Research shows that after training in the philosophy and practice of mindfulness, parents can mindfully attend to the challenging behaviors of their children with autism. Parents also report an increased satisfaction with their parenting skills and social interactions with their children. These findings were replicated and extended with 4 parents of children who had developmental disabilities, exhibited aggressive behavior, and had limited social skills. After mindfulness training, the parents were able to decrease aggressive behavior and increase their children's social skills. They also reported a greater practice of mindfulness, increased satisfaction with their parenting, more social interactions with their children, and lower parenting stress. Furthermore, the children showed increased positive and decreased negative social interactions with their siblings. We speculate that mindfulness produces transformational change in the parents that is reflected in enhanced positive behavioral transactions with their children.

Although research in autism has grown more sophisticated, the gap between research knowledge and applicability of research in real world settings has grown. There have been a number of different reviews of evidence-based practices of treatments for young children with autism. Reviews which have critically evaluated the empirical evidence have not found any treatments that can be considered evidence-based. Reasons for this shortcoming are explored, and a new method for the evaluation of empirical evidence is provided. Future uses of this evaluative method are provided as well as a discussion of how this tool might aid in narrowing the research to practice gap.