Developing the emotion regulation skills of autistic pupils in educational settings: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Moderating the intensity and expression of our emotions is necessary for successful engagement in learning. This systematic review explored, “what are schools doing to support autistic children and young people to develop their emotion regulation skills?” Critical analyses considered the inclusiveness of interventions and whether/how autistic pupils were asked about their participation. PsycINFO, Web of Science (Core Collection) and ERIC were searched on 18 July 2022. Eight studies were included, incorporating 419 autistic pupils, aged three to 17, from at least 955 schools in the USA, Australia and France. A narrative synthesis was used to provide an overview of the literature. Seven different approaches to emotion regulation were utilised, and only one was used in the school prior to the research. Forty out of 419 autistic pupils were asked for their views of the intervention they received. There is a lack of research considering school-led approaches to embedding emotion regulation skill development in everyday school practices and a lack of involvement of autistic pupil's views about emotion-regulation interventions. More research is needed to enable educational professionals to provide evidence-informed support for autistic pupils to develop their emotion regulation skills.