Earlier autism diagnosis, the importance of early intervention, and development of specific interventions for young children have contributed to the emergence of similar, empirically supported, autism interventions that represent the merging of applied behavioral and developmental sciences. “Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI)” are implemented in natural settings, involve shared control between child and therapist, utilize natural contingencies, and use a variety of behavioral strategies to teach developmentally appropriate and prerequisite skills. We describe the development of NDBIs, their theoretical bases, empirical support, requisite characteristics, common features, and suggest future research needs. We wish to bring parsimony to a field that includes interventions with different names but common features thus improving understanding and choice-making among families, service providers and referring agencies.

The results of this review indicate that parent-implemented language interventions are an effective approach to early language intervention for young children with language impairments. Critical features of parent-implemented interventions are discussed in terms of implications for practice and future research.

Objective This study tested the effect of beginning treatment with a speech-generating device in the context of a blended, adaptive treatment design for improving spontaneous, communicative utterances in school-aged, minimally verbal children with autism. Method Sixty-one minimally verbal children with autism, aged 5 to 8 years, were randomized to a blended developmental/behavioral intervention (JASP+EMT) with or without the augmentation of a speech-generating device (SGD) for 6 months with a 3-month follow-up. The intervention consisted of two stages. In Stage 1 all children received two sessions per week for 3 months. Stage 2 intervention was adapted (increased sessions or adding the SGD) based on the child’s early response. The primary outcome was the total number of spontaneous communicative utterances; secondary measures were total number of novel words and total comments from a natural language sample. Results Primary aim results found improvements in spontaneous communicative utterances, novel words, and comments that all favored the blended behavioral intervention that began by including an SGD (JASP+EMT+SGD) as opposed to spoken words alone (JASP+EMT). Secondary aim results suggest that the adaptive intervention beginning with JASP+EMT+SGD and intensifying JASP+EMT+SGD for children who were slow responders led to better post-treatment outcomes. Conclusion Minimally verbal school-aged children can make significant and rapid gains in spoken spontaneous language with a novel, blended intervention that focuses on joint engagement and play skills and incorporates an SGD. Future studies should further explore the tailoring design used in this study to better understand children’s response to treatment. Clinical trial registration information—Developmental and Augmented Intervention for Facilitating Expressive Language (CCNIA); http://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT01013545.

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This meta-analysis examined the effects of early interventions on social communication outcomes for young children with autism spectrum disorder. A systematic review of the literature included 1442 children (mean age 3.55 years) across 29 studies. The overall effect size of intervention on social communication outcomes was significant (g = 0.36). The age of the participants was related to the treatment effect size on social communication outcomes, with maximum benefits occurring at age 3.81 years. Results did not differ significantly depending on the person implementing the intervention. However, significantly larger effect sizes were observed in studies with contextbound outcome measures. The findings of this meta-analysis highlight the need for further research examining specific components of interventions associated with greater and more generalized gains.