Psychological Interventions

Psychological interventions to promote the quality of life in people with neurodevelopmental difficulties have a range of targets and are not confined to reducing the symptoms. This chapter will describe methods and the trial evidence for them according to their purposes. Explanation and psychoeducation are key methods of helping children, young people, and their families to understand their condition and the limitations it imposes. Symptomatic interventions for tics, hallucinations, impaired impulse control, and disorganization are often applied outside the limitations of single diagnostic categories. Other approaches aim to teach skills to help transdiagnostically with associated problems such as communication difficulties, anxiety, aggression, and self-injury. Yet others aim to alleviate adverse environments, such as isolation from peers, which are encountered by people with any or all of the disorders described in this book. The interventions used include supportive counselling, behavioural techniques, and cognitive methods to create change. Many have been evaluated by controlled trial, and the results will be described as the evidence base to establish which therapies, and for which children, should be priorities for health, education, and care services to provide.