James_Miller comments on How to tell apart science from pseudo-science in a field you don’t know ?

[James_Miller]

so a minimum of reading might be useful if only to understand what kinds of “playing” are likely to interest an autistic child,

One theory is that you start with what the kid will do without prompting and then gradually introduce yourself into his play using trial and error to identify actions he appreciates and responds to. This is called floortime. The other main paradigm is Applied Behavior Analysis.