{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T11:57:02Z","timestamp":1792151822211,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":64,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789084800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition that often requires long-term support across healthcare, education, and social care systems. Despite increasing recognition, many children and adolescents continue to experience delayed identification, fragmented care pathways, and unequal access to services. This narrative review synthesizes recent evidence on care pathways, service access, and psychosocial support needs in children and adolescents with ASD, drawing on literature published from 2020 onward, with emphasis on recognition, barriers to diagnosis and post-diagnostic support, service access, family burden, school participation, and transition-related needs. Recent evidence indicates that ASD-related care remains uneven across regions and systems. Delays in referral and assessment, workforce shortages, long waiting times, socioeconomic and geographic disparities, and poor coordination across healthcare, education, and social care remain major barriers to timely support. These structural constraints increase caregiver burden, complicate school participation, and weaken continuity of care during adolescence and transition to adulthood. Families frequently report difficulties navigating complex systems, while schools function as both a major site of support and a major source of unmet need. Improving outcomes requires earlier recognition, more equitable access to multidisciplinary services, stronger family and school support, and better coordination across healthcare, education, and social care sectors. A developmental and systems-oriented approach is likely to better address the changing needs of children and adolescents with ASD.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1840171","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T15:51:57Z","timestamp":1789141917000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Care pathways, service access, and psychosocial support needs in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: a narrative review"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Xugao","family":"Han","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medical Humanities, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lingyan","family":"Weng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Tourism Management, Nanjing Institute of Tourism and Hospitality","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Houxi","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Medicine Research of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.15585\/mmwr.ss7402a1","article-title":"Prevalence and early identification of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 4 and 8 years - autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 16 sites, United States, 2022","volume":"74","author":"Shaw","year":"2025","journal-title":"MMWR Surveill Summ"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"111","DOI":"10.1016\/S2215-0366(24)00363-8","article-title":"The global epidemiology and health burden of the 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