Approaches to autism early intervention have evolved in a number of ways in the past two decades. Intervention targets and procedures are becoming more broad-ranging, and include efforts to customize programs and delivery formats based on the characteristics of child, family, and implementation context. Additionally, the evidence base has expanded at an unprecedented pace, providing novel information on the range of interventions and practices that can be beneficial for young children on the autism spectrum. Most of this recent literature focuses on naturalistic interventions that blend behavioral and developmental strategies, i.e., Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs). Although the term was coined in 2015 (Schreibman et al.,
2015), NDBIs originate from efforts dating back to the 80 s to address limitations of traditional behavioral treatments, particularly regarding the developmental appropriateness of intervention goals and procedures for young children. Following a wave of high quality clinical trials supporting (in most cases and for most children) the effectiveness of NDBIs, many scholars who have lead these trials are now publishing intervention manuals designed to guide implementation of specific NDBIs in the community (e.g., Ingersoll & Dvortcsak,
2019; Rogers et al.,
2021). …
