Issues

This Health Policy Perspectives column is a call to action to refocus the occupational therapy practitioner’s role in school settings to include providing high-quality, evidence-based preventive mental health education and interventions.

This special issue includes review articles, qualitative exploratory studies, assessment tool content validation, and novel interventions and reveals opportunities for growth in the field of occupational therapy, both for more research as well as for intervention development and clinical involvement to support clients with autism across the lifespan.

This article includes suggestions generated from input from people with autism spectrum disorder or Asperger’s syndrome for how to support the mental health needs and promote the participation and well-being of autistic adults in case of another pandemic or other unexpected event.

This systematic review adds to the body of literature indicating that people diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have sensory abnormalities with regard to pain experiences and highlights the need for occupational therapy interventions to focus on pain experiences.

The Family Assessment of Quality in Self-Care Engagement (FAQ–Self-Care) is a promising tool that highlights the influential life factors that intersect with the self-care participation of families raising neurodiverse children on the autism spectrum.

The Adaptive Care program is an example of occupational therapy practitioners and other interprofessional team members adapting physical and social health care environments to support the mental health needs of autistic children.

This study highlights a discrepancy between autistic people’s need for social interactions and the social pain they experience, and suggests directions for intervention programs to improve their coping strategies and promote their self-acceptance and better inclusion in the community.

This article adds to the understanding of using the strengths and interests of autistic people by incorporating their voices into occupational therapy research and practice in meaningful and purposeful ways.

Healthy Relationships on the Autism Spectrum (HEARTS) offers a potentially effective, nonpharmacological, psychoeducational group-based intervention option to promote healthy relationships for autistic adults.

This autistic-led, internet-based survey broadens consideration of the dimensions and mechanisms inherent in sensory integration and processing (SI/P) and provides insight into the intersection of SI/P differences with depression and anxiety among autistic adults.

The findings from this research provide preliminary support for the adaptation of an existing small-group, parent-mediated intervention (Cool Little Kids) to prevent and reduce anxiety among autistic children.

This study highlights the social participation (SP) experiences of families raising children with autism spectrum disorder (C-ASD), focusing on both supports and barriers. Occupational therapy practitioners can use the findings to potentially prevent isolation and promote both child and family mental health and well-being.

This study is the first to examine the impact of the Ayres Sensory Integration^® (ASI) intervention on play outcomes for autistic children and the third study to document the feasibility of single-subject research for studying ASI.

This study supports a focus in occupational therapy interventions on sensory processing, emotional regulation, behavioral skills, and social skills in autistic children with and without intellectual disability (ID) to increase participation in home life, friendships, classroom learning, and leisure activities.

This study explores whether Ayres Sensory Integration^® (ASI), coupled with parent training, improves child playfulness and fathers’ support of child playfulness.

Occupational therapy practitioners can support autistic people across the lifespan in areas such as daily living, leisure, and executive function strategies, as well as support their caregivers as they manage the present and plan for the future.

This systematic review identifies and synthesizes existing research on the relationship between key areas of development and accessible play settings for children with disabilities to inform evidence-based interventions and advocacy work.

The evidence for this study suggests excellent internal reliability and good cross-cultural validity for the Scale for Parental Playfulness Attitude (PaPA), an important tool for occupational therapists working with Latino-American families to measure parent playfulness in the context of parent–child play.

This study tests the effectiveness of a sensory integration intervention paired with teacher consultation, aligned with the principles of Ayres Sensory Integration^® and the Sensory Therapies and Research Frame of Reference, to improve functional regulation and active participation in school for students with sensory integration and processing differences.

This study found that sensory interests, repetitions, and seeking behavior predicted occupational therapy service utilization by children with autism, whereas other sensory response patterns did not, suggesting a possible referral bias for certain sensory response patterns and the opportunity for occupational therapy practitioners to educate parents and teachers about the scope of practice.

Occupational therapy based on joint attention–based intervention can enhance the effectiveness of special education programs attended by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by improving visual perception, social communication, and positive behaviors.

This article discusses using the Engineering Design Process (EDP) within existing occupational therapy models to demonstrate its adaptability and flexibility, describes the distinct features of this problem-solving strategy, and presents a real-world case study in which the EDP is used in an after-school program.

This Evidence Connection article describes the occupational therapy evaluation and intervention a college student received after sustaining repeated sports-related concussions.