Global Trends in Rehabilitation of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Bibliometric Analysis
Keywords:
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); Rehabilitation; Bibliometric Analysis; Therapeutic Interventions; Occupational Therapy; Physical Activity; Sensory Integration; Behavioral Therapy; Telehealth; Social Skills; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; VOS viewer.Abstract
The study employs a bibliometric analysis of 238 peer-reviewed publications from Scopus, from the year 2015 to 2025 for studying the research trends, understanding the conceptual gaps and propose future direction for research on autism spectrum disorder. The increase in scientific publications, especially in 2024 to 2025, reveals growing interdisciplinary attention towards autism spectrum disorder, developmental disabilities and neurodiversity. The keyword analysis shows that Autism, Autism spectrum disorder, ASD and children are the main topics of research. Despite this, the inconsistent presentation and variation in the keyword’s usage shows that there is the urgent need of uniformity and cross study synthesis.
Additionally, the analysis reveals new themes that indicate a variety of intervention strategies, including physical activities, problem behavior, occupational therapy, telehealth and social skills. Interestingly the words like “interventions,” “functional analysis” and functional communication training indicated increasing emphases on behavioral and therapeutic approaches. However, less common words like phenomenology, obesity and distress point out psychological and systemic aspects of autism that haven't been studied enough and need to be looked into more in future research.
The journal of development and physical disability has the most articles published, followed by scientific reports, Heliyon and the American journal of Occupational Therapy. This shows that people tend to publish articles in their own field. The clustering facilitates concentrated discourse, which unintentionally obstructs interdisciplinary integration.
Still certain noticeable gaps, persists such as inadequate research studies on adults with ASD, intersection of gender and neurodiversity and cross-cultural viewpoint. Furthermore, despite the potential to improve access to care of people with ASD. Technological advancements like telehealth are still underutilized. In conclusion, the bibliometric analysis points to the need of interdisciplinary collaborations, more terminological consistency and inclusive, lifespan oriented and tech integrated framework to expand ASD research agendas.
