Abstract
Little is known about services for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in India. We systematically reviewed the literature to identify studies of ASD interventions in India. Among the 13 articles meeting review criteria, nearly all described efforts to culturally adapt interventions and/or outcome measures for Indian participants. Generally small and urban study samples limited generalizability of findings. Few studies targeted young children, and none focused on older adolescents and/or adults. All studies described improvements in target child and/or caregiver outcomes. However, the majority used qualitative, single-subject, or one-group designs, and several did not adequately describe their research designs or analytic methods. More research is needed to test and scale up culturally relevant ASD interventions for Indian populations.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Banerjee, M., & Ray, S. G. (2013). Development of play therapy module for children with autism. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 39(2), 245–253.
Brezis, R. S., Weisner, T. S., Daley, T. C., Singhal, N., Barua, M., & Chollera, S. P. (2015). Parenting a child with autism in India: narratives before and after a parent-child intervention program. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 39(2), 277–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-015-9434-y.
Daley, T. C. (2004). From symptom recognition to diagnosis: children with autism in urban India. Social Science & Medicine, 58(7), 1323–1335.
Daley, T. C., & Sigman, M. D. (2002). Diagnostic conceptualization of autism among Indian psychiatrists, psychologists, and pediatricians. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 32(1), 13–23.
Daley, T. C., Weisner, T., & Singhal, N. (2014). Adults with autism in India: a mixed-method approach to make meaning of daily routines. Social Science & Medicine, 116, 142–149.
Desai, P. P., & Mohite, P. (2011). An exploratory study of early intervention in Gujarat State, India: Pediatricians’ perspectives. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 32(1), 69–74. https://doi.org/10.1097/DBP.0b013e3181f46e0b.
Desai, M. U., Divan, G., Wertz, F. J., & Patel, V. (2012). The discovery of autism: Indian parents’ experiences of caring for their child with an autism spectrum disorder. Transcultural Psychiatry, 49(3–4), 613–637.
Deshmukh, V., Mohapatra, A., Gulati, S., Nair, M., Bhutani, V., & Silberg, D. (2013). Prevalence of neuro-developmental disorders in India. Poster presentation at the International Meeting for Autism Research, West Hartford.
Divan, G., Hamdani, S. U., Vajartkar, V., Minhas, A., Taylor, C., Aldred, C., & Patel, V. (2015). Adapting an evidence-based intervention for autism spectrum disorder for scaling up in resource-constrained settings: the development of the PASS intervention in South Asia. Global Health Action, 8(1), 27278. https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v8.27278.
Elsabbagh, M., Divan, G., Koh, Y., Kim, Y. S., Kauchali, S., Marcín, C., & Fombonne, E. (2012). Global prevalence of autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. Autism Research, 5(3), 160–179. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.239.
Gupta, B. (2015). Theory of mind in autism: a case study. Psychological Studies, 60(3), 339–345. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-015-0316-8.
Juneja, M., Mukherjee, S. B., Sharma, S., Jain, R., Das, B., & Sabu, P. (2012). Evaluation of a parent-based behavioral intervention program for children with autism in a low-resource setting. Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences, 7(1), 16–18. https://doi.org/10.4103/1817-1745.97612.
Juneja, M., Mishra, D., Russell, P. S. S., Gulati, S., Deshmukh, V., Tudu, P., et al. (2014). INCLEN diagnostic tool for autism spectrum disorder (INDT-ASD): development and validation. Indian Pediatrics, 51(5), 359–365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-014-0417-9.
Lal, R. (2010). Effect of alternative and augmentative communication on language and social behavior of children with autism. Educational Research and Reviews, 5(3), 119–125.
Lal, R., & Bali, M. (2007). Effect of visual strategies on development of communication skills in children with autism. Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, 18(2), 120–130.
Malhotra, S., Rajender, G., Bhatia, M. S., & Singh, T. B. (2010). Effects of picture exchange communication system on communication and behavioral anomalies in autism. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 32(2), 141–143. https://doi.org/10.4103/0253-7176.78513.
Minhas, A., Vajaratkar, V., Divan, G., Hamdani, S. U., Leadbitter, K., Taylor, C., et al. (2015). Parents’ perspectives on care of children with autistic spectrum disorder in South Asia—views from Pakistan and India. International Review of Psychiatry, 27(3), 247–256.
Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G., & the PRISMA Group. (2009). Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. PLoS Medicine, 6(7), e1000097. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097.
Nair, M. K., Russell, P. S., George, B., Prasanna, G. L., Bhaskaran, D., Leena, M. L., & Mammen, P. (2014). CDC Kerala 9: Effectiveness of low intensity home based early intervention for autism spectrum disorder in India. Indian Journal of Pediatrics, 81(2), S115–S119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-014-1474-8.
Pardhe, S., & Nandy, R. (2006). Asperger’s syndrome: management of anxiety and panic attacks. The Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy, XXXVIII(2), 43.
Rai, S., Haque Nizamie, S., & Nizamie, A. (2015). Social story in improving problem behavior in moderate autism—a case study. Journal of Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 11(3), 246–255.
Raj, A., & Salagame, K. K. (2010). Effect of sensitized coaching on self-efficacy of parents of children with autism. Journal on Developmental Disabilities, 16(2), 44–51.
Russell, P. S. S., Daniel, A., Russell, S., Mammen, P., Abel, J. S., Raj, L. E., & Thomas, N. (2010). Diagnostic accuracy, reliability and validity of childhood autism rating scale in India. World Journal of Pediatrics, 6(2), 141–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12519-010-0029-y.
Srivastava, S., & Mukhopadhyay, A. (2011). Optimism-pessimism and emotional competence measures of parents of children with symptoms of autism. Indian Journal of Community Psychology, 7(1), 130–138.
UNICEF (2013). India statistics. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_statistics.html.
World Bank (2017). Rural population (percentage of total population). Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS?end=2016&start=1960&view=chart.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dababnah, S., Ghosh, S., Campion, K. et al. Autism Interventions in India: a Systematic Review. Rev J Autism Dev Disord 5, 260–267 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-018-0137-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-018-0137-5