would only be legitimate, if all used intruments mea [ 12)). However, while we think that single case design . re ured the exa .t same on trust - an a sumption none of important, since tiere is a large hete ogeneit, in autistic the studie validatea. It -n be difficult to find one inst u individuals, -hich i. better addressca in single cave stud ent tut is alid to ll stud. perti ipants, a. they a . ies, we also agree with bandbank and wlleague. 12], that regarding age and intellectual impairment . .owever, we studies wit. a controlled design are needed to = lore suggest that fut.. e studies may use a few instrument. the generali ability of the effects of comprehensive ABn- ossiule to ensure comparability between artizi ba ed intervention . , ext to the _ _ncern. expressed in pant.. Finally it na to we : onsidered, that young autis- andwank et al. [12], we believe to-t the inclusion of in- ti: mildren atten unde. erform in tests on intellectual gle ase studies in our a eta-anal, sis would have added to functioning, for exa . le, due to motivational reasons. the already high heterogeneit in studies in ludea in our nother limitation i., Liat some sele ant studies _sula wwweta . nalysis, thus further limiting the con_lu-iveness of not we included be ause required d. ta were not reported weu Teaults and could not be _blainea by the authors mportantly, besides the unde. tandin_ crabb a a n important limit.ti_n at our stud, i the elfect sive new. odevelop.-.ental diso der, as an be found in the ... selection A. de cribed above, it i. recommended wy tie or Loom, autism is also conce tualice in - neurodiver Coch. ane L.andboc.. [':] to use post treatment com- sit: tremewo k by man. autisticindividuals, researchers pari ons, if t ndard deviations to. mange sores are nit and clinician , na wel; .s a natural va iation of neur_- reported in prima., tudies Ho veve., iti als_ stated that logical diversity [e.go 8:] t is weing di cussed wether this procedure should we unproblematic fo r ndomi.ed earl; inte. ventions in general are at all compatible in trials. It should be noted, that clfect izes wa ed in post this fa.. ewor,, a the . re usually focused on curing treatment _Ompa. isons could be viasea due to waseline or reducing impair...ents rather than on the strengths differences in treatment . nd =.ntrol grou. it mot pri Baat ziated with neurodiversity [ego, 82 85] An in-depth mary studies applied a quasi-t pe.imental de ign The discussion of the conceptuali ation of auti m as well a results of the moder-tor analy e may be interpreted a ethical =_nsiderations regarding omprehensive AuA preli.. inary, as the number of prin or, studies including ba ed inter entions in children with Abu is li, ited in these moderators wa low Especially aymptom severity this meta analy.i. because it is beyond the scope. Nev- at intake wa as es ed rarely and with different measure erthele s, I , addressing =_ncerns wulich . re wield against in , rimary studies Must measures were not originally comprehensive ABA-based treatment. and investigating designed to quantif, ympto... severity, = en trough undesirable ide effect in venarioral treatments, a re: higher scores in were and / ww3 indicate more deti- _mmended w; the N_tional natitute for Health and Care it (74, 79]. L.he guidelines for the diagnostics of Abu Excellence ;84], as well as 2, considering changes in com- from the Association of the Scientiti_ Meaical .zietie. prehensive A..A-waved intervention a knowleaging the Am W. ) recommend to use the ADI-R and the Ave> neurodi ersity framework. appear im. ortant t. im rc e in order to su_ port the diagnosti process in children the su, post for auti tic hildren and their familie with / D [fo. the detailed rex. mmend. tin sec ,80]). If future studie endorse this recommendation, they s.would UnELIUS VIE report the results of tcse assess. ments ..evertheless, the development of a reliable instru ent for the ssess- several met analyses, including the current stud, , re ealed evidence for a mediu. effe t of . omprehension went of sym too severity in children witinSD would be ABA-ba ed interventions (v.. treatment as u ual, minimal preferable Further.more, the nu: ver _+ studies in_luding -r m. treatment on intellectual functioning and ada parental .tress wa too low to conduct moderat x. analy tive behavior However, the current meta-analy i did not ses. To sum up, results from our moderate analyses, especially the examination of interactions between mod revealed upport for elects on language abilities, sym, - erat_rs, are merely indicative at the time being ana have tom severity, and parental stress beyond the central grou, treatment . Methodological li .itations of , rima. ; studies to be re, licated additionally, further and more complex and, thus, this meta-anal, sis may bias these re ults re.g. analyses have to be conducted, for example to account for low number of studie for anal, sis on s,m tom sever- the correlation wetween investigated variaules. . heretore, it,) However, the effect of c.m, rehensive ABA-wasea we conclude that moderators and their intera-.tions can- interventions on core features of aw may be compa- not be investigated pro, erly until more studies contrib ute t. the analysis. rawle to the effe. Is of the control group treatments. s This study = cluded ingle case experiment I design Comprehensive B. based interventions investigated in this meta analy is ontained mole treatment .hours [ABA studies, even though they are a.mmonly administered 21 85 h/wee..,D=5. 0 v.. CG 17.15 hrwee..,SD=10.82) in the research on treatments for autistic children (=.5. one ma, conclude that ticy a.e overly extensive and not