Article: Preliminary Randomized Trial of Function-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy to Treat Obsessive Compulsive Behavior in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. By Vause and others. In Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disorders, 2017, 32(3).
It is studies like these that make me want to apprentice myself to someone. Some of you may be familiar with the symptoms of both ASD and OCD and ask, how can you tell which is which? After all, both ASD and OCD include the presence of repetitive behaviors. It should be noted, however, that the purpose of such repetitive behaviors defines the treatment. So, how do you know if you're treating the OCD or the ASD, or does it even matter? The truth is, it does matter.
This study examined the effectiveness of an intervention designed to treat behaviors that can be both a function of OCD and ASD. There are a number of interesting things about this intervention, but the one I want to point out is that there is a strong parent piece to this. Parents are actually taught how to notice and examine these behaviors, and what to do about them in real-time and real locations (like the home). Consequently, outcomes are good for this intervention (i.e., it actually seems to work), and parents were generally pleased with the outcome.