Research on Technology Interventions

Before we feature more technology-based interventions for children and adults with autism, let's look at the research behind these interventions.

According to the National Autism Center report, which summarized the research available about different autism teaching strategies, "Technology-based Treatments" are considered an "emerging" intervention. This means that there have been a few studies published about these intervention strategies.

According to the NAC report, technology interventions have been used to teach academic, communication, and self-regulation skills to children with autism ages 6 to 14 years. This reflects the extent of the research that was completed by 2009, when the report was published. There have been many new research studies since this time, and these uses of technology for people with autism will likely continue to grow.


Here are a few websites that you can use to look up how much research support different interventions have to support them:

National Autism Center Report: a free 2009 summary of research on different strategies. Provides a list of interventions that are considered established, emerging, unestablished, and ineffective. You can look up an intervention, and see which category it falls into. http://www.nationalautismcenter.org/nsp/reports.php

National Professional Development Center on ASD: provides step-by-step guides on different strategies that are considered evidence-based. http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/content/briefs

National Association for Science in Autism Treatment: research summaries on different strategies. http://www.asatonline.org/treatment/autismtreatments