Milieu Teaching and Autism Ranking:

Future Research

Summary of Existing Research

There is insufficient high quality research to determine if specific forms of milieu teaching (such as prelinguistic milieu teaching or enhanced milieu teaching) provide any benefits to autistic children.

There is no high quality evidence to suggest that specific forms of milieu teaching (such as prelinguistic milieu teaching or enhanced milieu teaching) provide any benefits to autistic young people or adults.

Recommendations for Future Research

Future studies should

• Use more rigorous and robust research methods (such as large scale, randomised controlled trials).
• Compare milieu teaching with other, similar interventions to see which is most effective for teaching communication skills to different groups on the autism spectrum.
• Identify the specific components of milieu teaching which appear to be most effective (such as length of treatment, intensity of treatment etc.).
• Include a more diverse set of participants and parents/carers of those participants – in terms of gender, ethnicity, income, intellectual ability etc.
• Examine if any benefits can be maintained over a longer period (several months).
• Involve autistic people to review the efficacy and ethical basis of the intervention.

Updated

17 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 Jan 2017

Next Review

01 Jun 2023