Mindfulness-Based Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents: Direct and Long-Term Improvements

Abstract

A combined mindfulness-based program for children and their parents (MYmind) was beneficial for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, we investigated whether this program is also beneficial for younger children with ASD, whether effects last on the long-term, and whether it reduces common comorbid problems. Forty-five children referred with ASD aged 8 until 19 years old, and their parents participated. Repeated measures of children’s and parents’ social communication problems, emotional and behavioral functioning, mindful awareness, and of parenting were conducted pre-intervention, post intervention, 2-month follow-up, and 1-year follow-up. While children did not report significant changes in mindful awareness, their social communication problems decreased, and their emotional and behavioral functioning improved. Results were not consistent at each occasion; improvements reported by children were most substantial at a 2-month follow-up and only partly remained at a 1-year follow-up, while all children’s improvements as reported by parents were present on all occasions. Parents themselves reported improved emotional and behavioral functioning, improved parenting, and increased mindful awareness on all occasions. Parents’ social communication problems reduced only directly after the intervention. Most improvements were supported by the qualitative investigation of children’s and parents’ experienced change as reported on open-ended questions. This study suggests that children, including adolescents, with ASD and their parents can benefit from a mindfulness-based program with parallel sessions for children and parents.

Mindfulness-Based Program for Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Children and Parents

“…In addition, some children appeared to be more open and responsive to feelings of others. Previous studies of MBPs for children with ASD or their parents also reported improved family relationships (Kennedy 2017;Ridderinkhof et al 2018a;Singh et al 2014) and social responsiveness (De Bruin et al 2015;Ridderinkhof et al 2018a). The change process attuning to others seemed closely related to the change process being aware.…”

“…The MYmind program is a manualized program (De Bruin et al 2015;Ridderinkhof et al 2018a). It includes group sessions of 1.5 h per week for 9 weeks, with a parallel group for children and parents.…”

“…Also, mothers experienced more joy in their lives and a better understanding of themselves and others. A repeated measures study of MYmind included a qualitative analysis of written answers by children and parents on open-ended evaluation questions (Ridderinkhof et al 2018a), resulting in three main themes with regard to experienced changes described by children with ASD and their parents. Mindfulness skills reflected the mindfulness aspects that children and parents learned.…”

“…These results give a first impression of the experiences of children with ASD and their parents following an MBP. However, these qualitative studies included either a small sample size only focusing on the mothers (Kennedy 2017;Singh et al 2014), or a structured questionnaire with written answers instead of in-depth interviewing (Ridderinkhof et al 2018a).…”

The mindful family: a systemic approach to mindfulness, relational functioning, and somatic and mental health

“…Several studies, using a mindfulness program for children with psychopathology and a parallel mindful parenting program for their parents, have observed improvement in parents' psychopathology. However, it is not clear whether this parents' improvements are caused by children's enhanced mindfulness, by parents' own mindfulness training, or by the combination [39,40].…”