The Urgency of Speech Therapy Services to Overcome Social Communication Problems in Autistic Children: Systematic Literature Review

Background: Autism spectrum disorder is a biologically based neurodevelopmental disorder that affects a child's social interaction and communication skills. The main problems can be identified in two domains: communication/social interaction and restrictive and repetitive behaviour patterns. Autism spectrum disorder experiences significant social communication challenges that affect major areas of life, including Education and the community environment. With these problems, services are needed that can address the communication problems of autistic children, namely speech therapy. Method: This study used a systematic and reported design by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The systematic literature review search strategy was conducted using a database of Scopus-indexed journals in Q1-Q4. Articles searched for from 2019-2024 through the elicit.com search system. The protocol for searching for articles that match the study topic in this study uses keywords to provide higher accuracy, namely "speech therapy OR language therapy AND social communication AND autism OR ASD". The study search was limited from 2019 to 2024. Result: Based on the study above, it can be seen that speech therapy services are essential for developing social communication in autistic children. The studies are still fascinating, as evidenced by the increasing research on speech therapy services for autism in 2024, where 46 studies were conducted worldwide. The largest country is the United States, with 73 studies. These results can be used as our reference for researching what forms of speech therapy services can benefit autistic children so that they can develop optimally in society and schools later. Conclusion: These results can be used as our following reference, which will research what forms of speech therapy services can benefit autistic children to develop optimally in society and schools later. Speech therapy services carried out early on, and parental support are the core of successful therapy for autistic children who can have the same social abilities as other normal children.