Research: Commentary: Achievements and Future Directions for Intervention Research in Communication and Autism Spectrum Disorders

This paper provides a description of the strengths and weaknesses of research that supports the use of speech therapy.

Most speech therapy happens at school. While there is a lot of evidence to suggest that speech therapy is effective, there are few studies that demonstrate that speech therapy within a school setting is effective. This is because it is difficult to modify school-based therapy to suit the individual needs of the child and family. The author emphasizes that the highest quality research on the effectiveness of speech therapy in treating children with autism is limited to single subject designs over a small number of subjects. The strength of single subject research studies is that they allow technique-building, individualization of procedures, and quantifiable documentation of change. Unfortunately, the single subject approach does not control for the childâ??s natural development, placebo effects, or artifacts from the researcher.