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New Is Not Always Improved: Evidence-Based Practice in Play and Social Skills Intervention

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Play and Social Skills for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the importance of evidence-based practice and discusses issues in the context of interventions designed to teach play and social skills to children with ASD. The chapter aims to (a) provide a brief historical overview of the evidence-based practice movement beginning in the field of medicine and moving to psychology and education, (b) describe the common approaches to defining and identifying evidence-based practices, (c) identify specific evidence-based practices suitable for teaching play and social skills to children with ASD and note where each of those practices is presented in this text, and (d) discuss the reasons why practitioners and families may select practices that are not evidence-based. Ultimately, this chapter is intended to set the stage for subsequent chapters that focus on a variety evidence-based treatment options that have been repeatedly demonstrated to be capable of improving the play and social skills of children with ASD.

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Charlop, M.H., Lang, R., Rispoli, M. (2018). New Is Not Always Improved: Evidence-Based Practice in Play and Social Skills Intervention. In: Play and Social Skills for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Evidence-Based Practices in Behavioral Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72500-0_2

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