Beyond Silence: A Scoping Review of Provided Support for Grieving Children With Intellectual Disabilities or Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This review looked at how children with intellectual disabilities or autism are supported when someone they love dies. Only six studies were found on this topic. The research shows these children often don't get proper grief support because people wrongly think they can't understand death or feel grief. The support that does exist includes talking about death, letting children participate in funerals, family help, stories, and professional counseling, but it's not well organized or consistent.

This scoping review examined grief support available for children with intellectual disabilities or autism spectrum disorder following the death of a loved one. The review identified a significant gap in understanding and support, as these children are often incorrectly assumed to be unable to grieve or understand death concepts. Six studies meeting inclusion criteria revealed various support approaches including discussions, participation in death rituals, family support, storytelling, and professional interventions. The identified supports operated at micro, meso, and exo levels but completely overlooked macro-level interventions, suggesting grief support for this population is irregular and inconsistent.

Practitioners should recognize that children with ID or ASD can experience grief and may benefit from structured support including discussions, ritual participation, and professional interventions. The lack of systematic approaches suggests need for coordinated, evidence-based grief support protocols for this population.

Only six studies met inclusion criteria, indicating limited research in this area. The scoping review methodology provides broad overview but limited depth of analysis. No information provided about study quality assessment or geographic representation of included studies.

Children with intellectual disabilities (ID) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are considered unable to grieve or understand the concept of death and might not receive grief support after the death of a beloved person; hence, they are at risk of developing complicated grief. This scoping review identified existing grief support for children with ID or ASD. Searching seven databases yielded 514 records; six studies met the predefined inclusion criteria. The six studies identified grief support, including discussions, participation in death rituals, family support, stories, and professional interventions.

The support could be organized into three levels, micro, meso, and exo, overlooking the macro level completely, indicating that grief support for these children tends to be irregular and inconsistent.