The DOI matches its Crossref record; 220 of the 221 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Project AIM: Autism intervention meta-analysis for studies of young children.
Open accessAbstract
In this comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of group design studies of nonpharmacological early interventions designed for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we report summary effects across 7 early intervention types (behavioral, developmental, naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention [NDBI], TEACCH, sensory-based, animal-assisted, and technology-based), and 15 outcome categories indexing core and related ASD symptoms. A total of 1,615 effect sizes were gathered from 130 independent participant samples. A total of 6,240 participants, who ranged in age from 0-8 years, are represented across the studies. We synthesized effects within intervention and outcome type using a robust variance estimation approach to account for the nesting of effect sizes within studies. We also tracked study quality indicators, and report an additional set of summary effect sizes that restrict included studies to those meeting prespecified quality indicators. Finally, we conducted moderator analyses to evaluate whether summary effects across intervention types were larger for proximal as compared with distal effects, and for context-bound as compared to generalized effects. We found that when study quality indicators were not taken into account, significant positive effects were found for behavioral, developmental, and NDBI intervention types. When effect size estimation was limited to studies with randomized controlled trial (RCT) designs, evidence of positive summary effects existed only for developmental and NDBI intervention types. This was also the case when outcomes measured by parent report were excluded. Finally, when effect estimation was limited to RCT designs and to outcomes for which there was no risk of detection bias, no intervention types showed significant effects on any outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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“While this traditional form of ABA therapy (commonly referred to as Discrete Trial Training [DTT; Smith, 2001]) has been shown to have some beneficial effects on outcomes such as language, social functioning, adaptive behavior, cognitive ability, and challenging behaviors (Sandbank et al., 2020), there is a paucity of experimental evidence regarding long-term effects on adult outcomes (Jónsdóttir”
From Neurodiversity and Autism Intervention: Reconciling Perspectives Through a Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention Framework (2022) · cites this paper as Sandbank et al., 2020
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“A recent meta-analysis by Sandbank et al. (2020) demonstrated that, for children up to 8 years old, NDBIs yielded more favorable developmental outcomes when compared to other interventions.”
From Neurodiversity and Autism Intervention: Reconciling Perspectives Through a Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention Framework (2022) · cites this paper as Sandbank et al., 2020
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“NDBIs (Schreibman et al., 2015) have emerged as a group of particularly promising naturalistic interventions that have been shown to have positive effects on standardized measures of language and social-communication (e.g. Sandbank et al., 2020; Tiede & Walton, 2019).”
From Neurodiversity and Autism Intervention: Reconciling Perspectives Through a Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention Framework (2022) · cites this paper as Sandbank et al., 2020
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Citations
Cites
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Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 221 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 16
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Items 601–606 of 606
Ayoub, R., Abid, H. B., Bourgou, S., Kacem, I. H., Halayem, S., Khemekhem, K., Charfi, F., & Bouden, A. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1926851
L’autisme selon la HAS : science, idéologie et liquidation du sujet
Landman, P. (2026) · Journal français de psychiatrie · doi:10.3917/jfp.058.0011
Yan, C., Liang, S., Zhu, G., Zhao, Y., Weimin, C. H. E. N., Xia, Q., Wu, Z., Wang, Z., Ji, T., Sun, X., et al. (2026) · Life · doi:10.3390/life16111782
Voloshina, T. M. (2026) · Bulletin of psychotherapy · doi:10.25016/2782-652x-2026-0-99-126-131
Davis, N. O., & CARTER, A. S. (2026) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781394389933.ch9
Comprehensive Programs for Autistic Children and Youth
Odom, S. L., Suhrheinrich, J., HALL, L. J., & Melgarejo, M. (2026) · doi:10.1002/9781394489886.ch31
Metadata
- Authors
- Sandbank, M., Bottema-Beutel, K., Crowley, S., Cassidy, M., Dunham, K., Feldman, J. I., Crank, J., Albarran, S. A., Raj, S., Mahbub, P., & Woynaroski, T. G.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Boston College (US)
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Mount Holyoke College (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 2020-01
- Volume
- 146
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-29
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- PMC
- PMC8783568
- OpenAlex
- W2990306783
- Cited by
- 606
- References
- 221
- Citations by year
- 2026: 96 · 2025: 92 · 2024: 115 · 2023: 96 · 2022: 100 · 2021: 72 · 2020: 34
- FWCI
- 29.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Texas Digital Library (University of Texas)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (U54HD083211, T32 MH064913)
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (1R21DC016144)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Behavioral and Psychological Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, early intervention, young children, non-pharmacological treatment, naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention, TEACCH, animal-assisted interventions, sensory interventions, technology-based interventions, behavioral interventions, developmental intervention, detection bias
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Infant, Male, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Early Medical Intervention
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