Retraction of Published Research

David Celiberti, PhD, BCBA-D Association for Science in Autism Treatment Frank Cicero, PhD, BCBA, LBA Seton Hall University   retraction NOUN 1. the action of drawing something back or back in. “The pilot retracted the airplane’s landing gear.” 2. a withdrawal of a statement, accusation, or undertaking. “The hospital retracted its job offer after learning…

Some Cautions on the Exclusive Use of Standardized Assessments in Recovery-Oriented Treatment

By Eric Larsson, PhD, LP, BCBA-D  Association for Science in Autism Treatment A common practice in clinical research is to obtain norm-referenced, standardized assessments for pre- and post-testing. This practice should be employed only very cautiously for a variety of reasons. These reasons include basic experimental design concerns and the theoretical assumptions underlying the construction…

Interventions for Individuals on the Autism Spectrum and How Best to Evaluate their Effectiveness

Written by Bob LaRue, PhD, BCBA-D Associate Director of Behavioral and Research Services Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center, Rutgers University & Amy Hansford, BA Autism is a complex disorder characterized by significant deficits in social reciprocity and communicative ability as well as the presence of repetitive behavior/restricted interests. Given the heterogeneous nature of autism, many interventions…

Making Sense of Autism Treatments: Weighing the Evidence

Before evaluating any content found on the ASAT website, please read this article by Sense About Science. Sense About Science has produced a guide to help people to query the status of science and research reported in the media. The guide details how peer reviewed articles like the ones we offer below are checked and published. Choosing…

Magnets

David Celiberti, PhD, BCBA-D and Sunita Chhatwani, MSc, MEd Association for Science in Autism Treatment Description: Magnet therapy, magnetic field therapy, or magnetotherapy is a procedure that involves the application of magnets to target overall health as well as an array of pain conditions arising from arthritis, insomnia, headache, neuropathy, tensions, sciatica, fibromyalgia, pelvic pain,…

Chelation Therapy

Updated by Lisa Tereshko, PhD, BCBA-D, Endicott College Joyce Mauk, MD, Burnett School of Medicine at TCU and Austin College Description: There is a hypothesis that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have higher levels of toxic heavy metals in their systems than their peers (Lagan & Balfe, 2018); however, this hypothesis is unproven. This…

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

Kristin S. Bowman, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCBA-D Endicott College & Grace Effect Therapy Services Examples: Sign language, pictures, speech-generating device, voice output communication aid Description According to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is an umbrella term that encompasses all communication modalities other than vocal-verbal communication (i.e., talking; ASHA, n.d.-a). As the…