Lifespan Treatment for Autistic Individuals: A Guide to Evidence-Based Practices

In a world filled with hundreds of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) treatments, it is crucial to distinguish between evidence-based practices and ineffective and potentially harmful pseudoscientific approaches.For the former, we know what outcomes to expect, how to deliver procedures with fidelity and, ideally, costs of implementation versus benefits.Unfortunately, many treatments have not been similarly evaluated and the potential for wasted resources and direct harm to patients remains unknown.Interpreting ASD treatment research is complicated by differences in research norms across disciplines, competing theoretical underpinnings, and misleading information available from media sources.Overall, these issues contribute to a gap between the outcomes demonstrated in scientific studies and what is achieved in applied settings (e.g., schools, homes and clinics). Lifespan Treatment for Autistic Individuals guides professional practitioners in the selection of treatments that are procedural