To the Editor:
On behalf of the National Autism Center, or NAC, I want to thank you for recently featuring the Commentary “Where Are the Autism Teaching Competencies?” (Sept. 21, 2011).
Given the challenges of providing appropriate services to a diverse and increasingly numerous student population in this country with autism spectrum disorders, the need for evidence-based practice in our schools has never been so urgent. We must provide our educators with the tools and resources they need to give children the greatest chance for success.
To assist educators who work hard to provide appropriate services, the NAC published a comprehensive manual in 2010 titled “Evidence-Based Practice and Autism in the Schools.” It is designed to assist frontline interventionists in selecting and implementing the most effective research-supported treatments for autism spectrum disorders, or ASDs.
As we did with the results of NAC’s National Standards Project (that identified which ASD treatments have been shown to be effective), we are making this manual available online for free at www.nationalautismcenter.org. Educators from every state and dozens of countries have downloaded it. In a national survey conducted last year, responses demonstrated that the manual is making a significant impact on improving educators’ knowledge about ASD and providing effective interventions for students on the spectrum.
Lasting change in the education of students with ASD requires evidence-based practice as its foundation.
Hanna Rue
Director of Evidence-Based Practice
National Autism Center
Randolph, Mass.
