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.
KEY WORDS
communication enhancement - autism - pervasive developmental disorder
