Who and how are children selected for early autism intervention

•Guidelines and standards should be used in selecting children for EIBI studies.•Current methods of client selection are varied and inconsistent.•Scaling method designed to measure core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders should have norms on this age group.•Licensed professionals should use multiple diagnostic methods.•The diagnostic methods should be detailed in the method section.

Early Intensive Behavioral Interventions (EIBI) has become a well recognized treatment for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Nonetheless, many questions remain about how to best administer these interventions and tailor treatments to given children. For researchers to make the best decisions regarding treatment, client populations must be precisely defined and described. Thus, the correct methods for client selection need to be described and used. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of methods of client selection for EIBI research. This paper reviews 34 studies which focus on this treatment model. Methods and procedures used in these studies are discussed. At present, they fall short of optimal standards.