Feasibility of a school-based mindfulness program for improving inhibitory skills in children with autism spectrum disorder

Background: Executive dysfunction is prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), including prominent difficulties in the two facets of inhibition, as well as with selective attention. School-based mindfulness has been used in typically-developing children to improve executive functioning, though this has not been investigated in children with ASD. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a school-based mindfulness program for improving inhibition (prepotent response inhibition and interference control) and selective attention in children with ASD. Method: Using a quasi-experimental, pre-post design, an eight week school-based mindfulness program (Mindful Schools; https://mindfulschools.org/), was administered to students with ASD (n = 27) at a private, not-for-profit school for children with special needs. The Walk/Don't Walk test and the Color-Word Interference test were used to evaluate prepotent response inhibition and interference control, respectively. Selective attention was measured using a cancellation test. Results: Significant improvements followed the intervention for prepotent response inhibition and interference control (medium effect sizes), as well as for overall selective attention (large effect size). Conclusions: The study's findings demonstrate that school-based mindfulness holds promise for increasing specific executive functioning abilities in children with ASD.