Madi Anderson

Sophomore Honors Studies

Dr. ODea

4 November 2017

Conference Proposal

Call for Research:

NCHC in April and (eventually but not yet) research with/ for Autism Speaks

Autism Therapy Proposal:

The current treatments for autism include a variety of therapies and drugs administered to

control certain symptoms of autism. Individuals on the Autism spectrum can vary greatly from

one another yet are often treated with the same prescriptions to control their behaviors. Drugs

include those used to manage ADHD and OCD. Due to the variability among Autism patients,

there is no universal treatment for individuals with autism.

I plan to use research about the different drugs that are often used as treatment for autism

patients as well as research about different autism therapies to examine the differences between

the treatments. Also, I plan to extensively research the effectiveness of Applied Behavior

Analysis Therapy, a common treatment for autism patients. Other important research I will

conduct examines what research on autism exists and what research is being done to further

examine the effectiveness of different autism treatments. Lastly, I will examine what research

exists to understand autism/ what causes autism to show that individuals on the autism spectrum

often have a varied medical history and varied characteristics.

 I propose for more research to be dedicated to the effectiveness of autism therapies

instead of focusing on trying to find a universal cure for autism. The conversation about autism

needs to be altered to include the diversity among autism patients. Similarly, treatment for

individuals on the autism spectrum should be focused on therapy that caters to the patients

individual needs as well as what has been proven to be effective across the most patients.