Abstract: The empathy deficits in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may cause their social interaction barriers. Therefore, it’s very important to intervene the empathy ability of individuals with ASD. Some researchers proposed the empathy method of “making up for weaknesses”, indicating a direct intervention for the empathy deficits of individuals with ASD, including the theory of mind (TOM) intervention, the perspective-taking intervention, the intervention of facial expression cognition, and so on. However, others thought although individuals with ASD had empathy deficits, their systematic capability was excellent. Therefore, the empathy ability of individuals with ASD should be improved through their innate advantage of systematic capability, called the empathy method of “giving full play to strengths”, mainly including the lego therapy, the serious games intervention and the island-based intervention based on systemizing theory. All of the methods mentioned above had their own advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the reflection and prospect on the problems existing in the field of empathy interventions for individuals with ASD were put forward.

Key words: autism spectrum disorders, empathy, intervention