Week 12 Case Study: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children With Autism: Review and Considerations for
Future Research
Danial, J., & Wood, J. (2013). Cognitive behavioral therapy for children with autism: Review and considerations for
future research. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 34(9), 702-715. doi:
10.1097/DBP.0b013e31829f676c
Personal Reflection
Think the Change You Want To Be
The J. Daniel and J. Wood’s 2013 article is a review of various studies that investigate the effectiveness of
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). In these studies CBT is an intervention strategy to help those
diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) work through some of their presenting symptoms, mainly,
but not exclusively, anxiety.
The premise of CBT is that the cognitive activity of the brain affects behaviour and if you can alter the
cognitive activity the brain you can alter target behaviour. Cognitive restructuring was used with a subject
diagnosed with ASD to alter the aberrant behaviour that was exhibited when they encountered a particular
environmental stimulus. Through CBT the person with ASD would be given the cognitive tools to process
their environment in a different way. When presented by an environmental stimulus rather then going down a
cognitive path that leads to anxiety, they would have the training to process with situation in a different
manner. The connection between anxiety and aberrant behaviours is innate within us. Our growth and
development provides us with a toolbox of cognitive and behavioural strategies to deal with anxiety and limit
their outwards manifestation. It is easy to see that the core symptoms of autism, especially rigidity of thought
can be linked to anxiety. It is not as easy to see if the anxiety could be the foundation for rigidity, if rigidity is
the cause of anxiety or if the two play off each other.
In their 2013 article, J. Daniel and J. Wood made the decision to limit the review to the studies of CBT that
involved “high-functioning” individuals with ASD. This makes sense, CBT is a talk-based therapy and to be
effective the participants have to have proficient verbal and communication skills. When studies only target
the “high-functioning” portion of the population with ASD it creates a result that are difficult to generalize to
the larger population. “A high-functioning person with ASD” is a subjective term and those that have highfunctioning verbal and cognitive abilities, may also have a natural predisposition to be successful in this type
of intervention. Where as the results of these studies might not be transferable to other demographics within
the ASD population we need to remember that there is no single magic intervention for all people with ASD.
It is easy to negatively comment on the transferability or ability to generalize the results of a study when they
involve high functioning individuals with ASD. When dealing with grand diversity of ASD we also must
have interventions that are equal H\