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Topic Overview:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disability. In the past decade, researchers recognized that poor emotion regulation is common among individuals with ASD and underlies co-occurring mental health disorders and suicidality. Emotion regulation is a key contributor to use of medications, crisis services, and psychiatric hospitalization in ASD, ultimately influencing high health care costs. Individuals with autism, school personnel, and parents all identified emotion regulation as a substantial barrier and an unmet service need. Yet, ASD treatment research has almost exclusively examined early intervention and social skills to date.

Mindfulness-based interventions are ideally suited to address emotion regulation impairment in ASD. Studies of mindfulness-based interventions consistently demonstrate improved emotion regulation in other populations, with preliminary support in ASD samples. However, there are known implementation barriers for translating these interventions into community settings serving individuals with ASD. Beck specializes in the development and testing of mindfulness-based interventions for individuals with ASD across the lifespan. She is currently working to translate these effective interventions into community settings with providers serving individuals with ASD. In this talk, Beck will present her work on testing and translating the Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement (EASE) program to children, adolescents, and adults with ASD.