Comprehensive Treatment Models for Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Comprehensive treatment models (CTMs) have a long history as sources for intervention, therapeutic, and educational services for children and youth with ASD and their families. The original models have evolved and new CTMs have been developed based on a variety of theoretical and conceptual frameworks. While great emphasis is still placed on operationalization, a greater awareness of the need for accurate measurement of fidelity and implementation has emerged. Replications or utilizations of CTMs may well increase in the future through the more accurate measurement of implementation and the lessons currently being learned from the broader field of implementation science. Accompanying such increases is the continued need for examinations of efficacy of CTMs by the purveyor and the evaluation of scaled-up implementation of CTMs by researchers other than the purveyor. Such evidence will strengthen the argument for adoption of CTMs by programs for use in everyday practice, although adoption will also be influenced by community and sociopolitical contexts.