That could be the opening line of a manual on how to anger and frustrate parents of autistic kids, right? But the flip side is just as exasperating: “We won’t do anything that isn’t evidence-based.” I call that evidence-biased, and it can be just as stubborn an obstacle, because it’s the same thing—refusing to listen to new ideas that may be off the beaten path.

Evidence-based should mean reference point, guideline, documented consideration—not monolithic mandate. Evidence means “available body of information,” and that nearly always changes over time, sometimes a very short period of time given the pace at which discovery happens these days. When new evidence supersedes earlier evidence, so-called best practices can be slow to catch up. Further, best practices are only average practices if doggedly applied to every student, and are not best if executed poorly (not factoring in details such as in what environment, for how long, who administers the practices, and how outcomes are evaluated) or if everyone’s doing them and not paying attention to the children who fall outside of them.

Anything that is evidence now started as so-called anecdotal—someone’s observation of something non-standard. Again (and again and again), the measure is, does this make sense for *this* *unique, individual* child? The most skillful photographers are constantly adjusting the lens. So should we. That’s “the way it should always be done.”

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Originally posted 14 April 2018
Updated adaptation from Ten Things Your Student with Autism Wishes You Knew, 2nd edition (2022)

 

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