A Framework for Neurodiversity-Affirming Interventions for Autistic Individuals

Despite being targets of intervention practice and research for over 60 years, autistic people have been left out of the conversation. Until recently, nearly no research or implementation work has sought the input of autistic people in regard to the design of interventions and, more importantly, how the goals for such interventions are prioritized and determined. This reframe has profound implications for autism-focused interventions and research, most of which have aimed to reduce or eliminate autism symptoms, with variable empirical support (Bottema-Beutel, 2023). These outcomes are practically and ethically incompatible with a neurodiversity perspective. Most prominently, applied behavior analysis (ABA), which was the first intervention approach widely applied to autistic people, has come under increasing scrutiny and criticism for failing to include autistic people in the design of intervention elements and consideration of goals; moreover, autistic people are increasingly identifying iatrogenic effects they have experienced when receiving ABA (Bottema-Beutel, 2023), with these concerns often being met with minimization rather than an endorsement of their validity and willingness to hear them out. Thus, there is a pressing need for a neurodiversity-affirming interventions (NAI) framework for autism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).