Teaching Social Communication A Comparison of Naturalistic Behavioral and Development, Social Pragmatic Approaches for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

There are a variety of effective treatments designed for increasing social communication in young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Two such treatments, naturalistic behavioral and developmental, social-pragmatic/relationshipbased interventions, differ in their underlying philosophy yet share many similarities in their implementation. They also exhibit critical differences that may affect their effectiveness with children with ASD. This article provides a discussion of the similarities and differences between these two approaches. Based on this comparison, it recommends new research directions that should lead to the development of more effective social-communication interventions for young children with ASD.