Giving Compass' Take:

• A new study shows that providing autism interventions in more natural settings, such as during dinner are useful for supporting language and social communication. 

• How can parents pay better attention to intervention effectiveness? What other research would be helpful in learning more about autism interventions?

• Learn how playing Minecraft can help students with autism. 

The interventions are particularly effective for supporting language, social communication, and play development.

“Naturalistic developmental behavior interventions (NDBIs) have garnered more high-quality evidence supporting their use than some traditional approaches for aiding young children with autism,” says Micheal Sandbank, assistant professor in the College of Education Special Education at the University of Texas at Austin and principal investigator of the study in Psychological Bulletin.

Researchers say the analysis marks the first meta-analysis of 130 reviewed studies of non-pharmacological interventions designed for young children with autism.

“Meta-analysis allows us to see whether interventions are more or less effective depending on different characteristics of the participants and the intervention—it helps us determine what works and for whom,” Sandbank says.

NDBIs are early intervention techniques that clinicians, educators, and other caregivers implement in natural settings, as opposed to more highly structured and formalized interventions.

The meta-analysis showed that although traditional intervention methods such as early intensive behavioral intervention have promising evidence supporting their use, more high-quality research is needed.

The research also concludes that there is little evidence to support the effectiveness of several other interventions, including TEACCH (which focuses on learning strengths and preferences of the individual with autism), sensory-based interventions, animal-assisted interventions, and interventions mediated solely through technology (though approaches that integrate technology, such as high-tech augmentative and alternative communication devices, into more established interventions appear promising).

Additional research found that interventions are often more effective for kids with more language skills and are more effective for improving spoken language compared with understood language. The team is continuing to explore other findings related to how intervention effects vary based on different characteristics of the intervention, participants, or outcomes being tracked.

Read the full article about autism interventions by M. Yvonne Taylor at Futurity.