Children with autism and their parents may be best served by only using proven autism therapies such as applied behavior analysis (ABA).

The authors note that parents really need therapies for their children that work. This review article describes two fad autism therapies: sensory integration therapy and Relationship Development Intervention (RDI). They define fad treatments as treatments that do not have quality research showing that they work. Fad treatments cost money, can be hard on the emotions of the parents, and give false hope. Many parents turn to fad treatments because they want to do as much as they can for their child as fast as they can.