Developing Inner Speech to Help Autistic Individuals Improve Their Self‐Regulation Ability: A Pilot Randomized‐Controlled Trial

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Baumann, B. L., Nathan, J., Nathan, B. R., Sheynblyum, M., Copeland, V. C., Mazefsky, C. A., & Eack, S. M. (2025). Developing Inner Speech to Help Autistic Individuals Improve Their Self‐Regulation Ability: A Pilot Randomized‐Controlled Trial. Autism Research, 18(7), 1489-1496. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.70053

Publication date: 30 May 2025 Added to AutiHub: 22 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
7
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 7 (14.3%)
  1. Barbara L. Baumann
  2. Janice Nathan *
  3. Barry R. Nathan
  4. Miriam Sheynblyum
  1. Valire Carr Copeland
  2. Carla A. Mazefsky
  3. Shaun M. Eack

Abstract

ABSTRACT Some autistic children often have difficulty regulating their emotions. This pilot study evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention to reduce emotional dysregulation by developing inner speech in autistic children. The therapy is called Thinking in Speech (TiS). Nine certified speech‐language pathologists were trained remotely. They, in turn, remotely administered TiS to 22 autistic children. Participating children were randomly assigned to either a therapy immediate or a waitlist control condition. Both groups received sixteen 30‐min therapy sessions over 8–10 weeks. Parents rated the amount of emotional dysregulation on three measures before the intervention and after the sixteen 30‐min therapy sessions. Results showed significant results on the Emotion Dysregulation Inventory‐Dysphoria Scale (F = 5.49, n = 11, p = 0.008), and marginally significant results on the Emotion Dysregulation Inventory Index Regulation Index‐Reactivity Scale (F = 2.57, n = 11, p = 0.089). Such findings suggest a potential impact of developing inner speech to reduce emotion dysregulation in autistic children.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
41
With a DOI
33
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
8
1 / 41 (2.4%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 41 (9.8%)
References with detected author names
37 / 41 (90.2%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
8
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
111
From DOI or external metadata
111
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
33 / 111 (29.7%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 78 / 111 (70.3%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
1 / 111 (0.9%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 1 / 33 (3.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 89 (1.1%).
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