"Recovery" towards? The implication of recovery-oriented policy for the autism spectrum disorder - A phenomenological approach to "best-practices"

Research on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), over the past decade, lead to a reconceptualization of the diagnostic and of our perspective of the spectrum from a social-cognitive stance to a more embodied... [ view full abstract ]

Research on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), over the past decade, lead to a reconceptualization of the diagnostic and of our perspective of the spectrum from a social-cognitive stance to a more embodied understanding—linking psychosocial and bodily challenges. Yet, despite the considerable progress in research intervention, only 50% of individuals with ASD demonstrate significant improvement following evidence-based practices (EBP). Yet, the focus of intervention mainly continues to target cognitive and/ or behavioural components. Recovery is a powerful construct connected to conceptualization of hope from which many parents draw on for their young child labeled with ASD. The recent shift in mental health care policy towards recovery—which core premise is to give back meaning and empower individuals with mental illness and their families—stresses the need to revisit our conceptualization of intervention specific to individuals with ASD and their family and raises questions such as: 1) what is “recovery” for individuals with ASD, and 2) what are they recovering "from"?. Recovery refers to the internal conditions experienced by the individual. The centrality of the lived experiences of individuals with ASD in recovery-oriented care should thus shifts the goal of intervention research from finding "one-fits-all" treatment towards individualized treatments. Narratives provide a unique window into the particularities of individual experience such as what really matters—i.e. meaning. Therefore, we will show how the analysis—through an enacted narrative-phenomenological framework—of lived experience of children with ASD can shape practices by unpacking the moment-to-moment [inter]actions within a movement-based interventions that aims to provide lived—and sensory dense—experiences of being with others.