New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline - Ministry of Health

Appendices
Where a recommendation is based on the clinical and educational experiences of members of the
Guideline Development Team, this is referred to as a good practice point.
Good Practice Point:
Where no evidence is available, best practice recommendations are made based on the
experience of the Guideline Development Team or feedback from consultation within
New Zealand.
In interpreting the grades attached to each recommendation, it is important to note:
The strength of evidence grading does not reflect the importance of the recommendation or
its direction.
For example, it is possible to have A evidence that an intervention works or A evidence that it
doesn’t work (and that therefore the intervention is not recommended). The grading of ‘A’ reflects
the ‘strength of the evidence’ that supports that recommendation. In other cases, it may not
be practicable or feasible to perform rigorous scientific studies for some types of interventions
or programs. Nevertheless, there may be universal consensus among ASD experts that such an
intervention or programme is effective at producing desired outcomes. In this situation, a good
practice point would recommend a certain course of action, based on consensus among the
workstreams. Thus, the attached grading reflects the rigour of the studies providing the evidence
rather than an indication of the importance of the recommendation.
Appendices
New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline 271