Rethinking Treatment Studies in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities: Insights from 12 Years at the MIND

Considerable effort goes into testing interventions designed to reduce the challenges faced by some autistic individuals and those with genetic conditions like fragile X syndrome. Unfortunately, many promising interventions fail to show benefit when tested in research. However, some of these “failures” may be due to the research methods used rather than a failure of the intervention. Abbeduto will discuss some new, potentially more sensitive methods, for studying intervention effects. He will focus on ways of measuring changes in language ability, the pairing of medications with supportive behavioral interventions, and the need to recruit people into intervention research based on their profile of challenges and needs rather than a specific diagnosis. Abbeduto will also discuss the need for more attention to diversity and equity when recruiting people into this research.