Evidence-based practice has become the standard in the fields of medicine, psychology, education, and allied health. The idea that decision makers should know how much research supports a treatment has also been important in the field of autism.
For example, in 1999, the New York State Department of Health, Early Intervention Division, published clinical practice guidelines concerning the treatment of very young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In 2001, the National Research Council’s Committee on Educational Interventions for Children with Autism published a report that attempted to identify the best available treatment programs.
In spite of progress made to date, the existing clinical guidelines are limited in several ways:
The National Standards Report addressed these limitations in the following ways: