title: Understanding the continuum of discrete-trial traditional behavioral to social-pragmatic developmental approaches in communication enhancement for young children with autism/PDD.
abstract: Clinicians are faced with the challenge of making informed decisions amidst heated debates over the most effective treatment approaches for young children with autism. This article provides a more specific focus to this debate by considering the practice of enhancing spontaneous language and related social-communicative abilities of young children with autism/pervasive developmental disorder (PPD). First, a historical perspective of the evolution of different approaches for enhancing communication and related abilities is presented, followed by a description of characteristics of the approaches. The approaches are described along a continuum from massed discrete trial, traditional behavioral to social-pragmatic, developmental. The current state of knowledge regarding the effectiveness of early services for children with autism/PDD is examined and conclusions are presented with consideration of the need for more meaningful outcome measures than are currently used for the next generation of outcome research.
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Development, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Prizant
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wetherby
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D013060:Speech; D014706:Verbal Learning