Process research in early intensive intervention in autism spectrum disorder: Sensitivity to change of the autism behavior coding system.

All children received the same FIAS intervention, and the paper does not describe a control group, so it cannot show that the intervention caused the changes. The DD-C-GAS was rated by the lead FIAS therapist, so the therapists' expectations may have influenced the global improvement scores. The coded video changes did not correlate significantly with the global DD-C-GAS changes, so the two measures did not tell the same story. The sample was small and mostly boys (32 boys and 8 girls), and only three children were rated as verbal, so the findings may not apply to girls or verbal children. In 20 children, at least one video had more than 5 minutes unscorable, and the other scores were extrapolated to the full 3600-second observation time. The ABCS variables were revised for this study, so the coding system was still being developed rather than finalized.

Olga Lazari was partially funded by the Universitäre Psychiatrische Kliniken Basel Forschungsfonds and by the Botnar foundation. René Spiegel is the President of the FIAS Foundation, a charitable nonprofit organization. No other potential conflict was reported.

Do not conclude that FIAS caused the changes or that the ABCS is a validated clinical outcome measure. The study had no control group, the global ratings were made by therapists delivering the intervention, and the coded changes did not correlate with the global ratings.