What are the evidence-based interventions?

What Are Evidence-Based Practices?

An evidence-based practice is an instructional/intervention procedure or set of procedures for which researchers have provided an acceptable level of research that shows the practice produces positive outcomes for children, youth, and/or adults with ASD. (definition from the NPDC on ASD)

Research and EBPs

The Missouri Department of Mental Health, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Thompson Center, and Project ACCESS collaborated on the creation of a Missouri-based list that synthesized prominent research lists into a Missouri guide to the EBPs, and documented this work in the Missouri Autism Guideline Initiative (MAGI) project. For more information about free materials you can download from the MAGI website, please visit our page devoted to sharing this MAGI information. The resulting list of EBPs from the MAGI is recapitulated below, with links to explanations and resources.

The National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice (NCAEP) recently released their new report identifying effective EBPs. The new report reviews literature published from 1990-2017 and identifies 28 EBPs and 10 manualized interventions that also met criteria. You can review the updated list of EBPs and research article.

The National Professional Development Center has created Autism Focused Intervention Resources & Modules (AFIRM) for each of the identified EBPs. Each module provides an overview and general description, step-by-step instructions of implementation, an implementation checklist, and the evidence-base which includes the list of references that demonstrate the practice meets the NPDC's criteria.

Project ACCESS believes that high quality teaching involves the use of these scientifically validated EBPs as a foundation of programming for students.

How one goes about selecting an appropriate EBP as an intervention for someone on the autism spectrum is detailed on this page: Selecting an EBP. You might find it helpful to watch the video to learn about how EBPs are selected before continuing to read more about each EBP.

Below you will find a link for each of the 28 listed EBPs. Each link directs you to a page that contains information about that EBP including.

Evidence Based Autism Interventions: