Autism Spectrum Disorders
Because of the characteristics and severity of the disorder, the treatment of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) has been fraught with unproven treatments and exaggerated claims of treatment effectiveness. Fortunately, there is a growing body of scientifically proven teaching strategies and tactics that are becoming more accessible to parents and teachers. However, despite the scientifically proven teaching strategies and tactics available in ASD treatment, fads and unproven treatments prevail. There are several reasons why they prevail.
The reason why fads prevail is desperation of parents. After their children have been diagnosed with ASD, parents feel pressured to have their children have soonest cure. In such a context, fads come handy since they promise quick recoveries compared to the expensive evidence-based alternative which take long time and work (Exkorn, 2005). Other reasons include fads come with convincing and genuine-sounding ideas; the parents don’t to reflect back and wish there were something that they could have done; and some fads have a backing from few case reports.
In the absence of ASD cure, many parents who wish best their children are willingly ready to make a try at anything that they hope will assist their children (Ohio State University, 2007). Also, thousands of cures are readily available through the Web sites and it may offer convincing yet false information to desperate parents; and as Tracy Kettering, an Ohio State special education doctoral student stated, upon “Googling” an autism treatment search phrase, there are over 2.2 million results, “hundreds of different therapies that come up, and many quotes from parents that claim that a particular therapy ‘cured’ their child…parents want to believe” but unfortunately, “very few of these treatments have any evidence to support them.”

References
Exkorn, K.S. (2005). The Autism Sourcebook: Everything You Need to Know About Diagnosis, Treatment, Coping, and Healing. NY: William Morrow.
Ohio State University. (2007). Homepage. As Autism Diagnoses Grow, So Do Number of Fad Treatements, Researchers Say. Retrieved March 1, 2012 from http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/fadaut.htm