Emotional Regulation of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review

Young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often experience difficulties developing emotional regulation because of their unique characteristics; therefore, it is necessary to support them. This article reviews previous intervention studies related to emotional regulations of young children with ASD. According to the criteria, a total of 56 experimental studies were selected and the general characteristics and their specific contents for emotional regulation of young children with ASD were analyzed; in total, 14 interventions were used to improve emotional regulation. The most used interventions were technology assisted instruction/intervention (TAII; 24, 42.9%), social skills training (SST; 21, 37.5%) and cognitive behavior instruction strategies (CBIS; 19, 33.9%). Regarding dependent variables, ‘cognitive evaluation of emotions’ was covered in 39 studies (69.6%), showing the highest rate. Based on the results, implications and future directions to improve the emotional regulation ability of young children with ASD are discussed.