Autism Therapies
Autism Therapy Disciplines
The Michigan insurance legislation identified core disciplines that should be paid for the treatment of autism including board certified behavior analysts (BCBA), speech-language pathologists (SLP), occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), and nutrition therapy. All of these therapies have professional organizations and guidelines that monitor their clinical practice, and all except for BCBAs are licensed by the State of Michigan. A bill to license BCBAs in Michigan is currently in progress. The behavior technicians or ‘tutors’ as they are often referred are non-licensed and often non-degreed staff that work under the supervision and responsibility of the BCBA to regulate them.
Evidence Based Therapies
Established Interventions- those that are well proven to be effective
Emerging Interventions- those that have one or more study that suggest it is effective, however are in need of additional studies
Unestablished- those with little or no evidence in the scientific literature to assure effectiveness and no way to rule out that they are harmful
The current list of established treatments for individuals under 22 years of age include:
- Behavioral Intervention
- Cognitive Behavior Therapy
- Language Production Training
- Modeling
- Natural Teaching Strategies
- Parent Training
- Peer Training
- Pivotal Response Therapy
- Schedules
- Scripting
- Self-Management
- Social Skills
- Story-based Interventions
- Emerging therapies for children up to 22 years old include:
- Augmentative and Alternative Communication
- Developmental Relationship-based Therapy
- Exercise
- Exposure
- Functional Communication Training
- Imitation and Imitation Training
- Language Training- Production and Understanding
- Massage
- Multi-Component Therapy
- Music therapy
- Picture Exchange Communication Therapy
- Reductive Therapy
- Sign
- Social Communication
- Structured Teaching
- Technology Based Intervention
- Theory of Mind Training
Complementary and Alternative Treatments
Some examples of unestablished therapies include:
- Animal-assisted therapy
- Auditory Integration Training
- Concept Mapping
- DIR/Floortime
- GFCF
- Movement-based Intervention
- Sense Theatre Intervention
- Sensory Therapies
- Shock Therapy
- Social Behavioral Learning
- Social Thinking
Treatment for Adults with Autism
Research on emerging therapies for individuals over 22 years of age with autism have shown promise in Vocational Training.
Unestablished therapies for the adult population include music therapy, modeling, cognitive-behavioral, and sensory integration therapies. Some of these interventions made be highly enjoyable for adults on the autism spectrum and ways that adults may choose to spend their time regardless of the guarantee of improvement on skills.