Least Objectionable and/or Best Autism Intervention

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So, parents ask me pretty often about autism interventions, either wanting to try them or asking me my thoughts on them. The problem is, to my knowledge they all have flaws. Behaviorism in general, upon which most all of the interventions are based, is a tool which can be incredibly abusive if wielded in the wrong way.

My question is, among the biggest intervention programs - ABA, DIR Floortime, and TEACCH are the largest, but I'd also count ESDM and VB and any other major interventions you guys can think of - which are the least objectionable, and/or best?

I'm weighing these guiding questions here in determining least objectionable. To me that would mean the intervention least likely to be misused/abused, the least likely to make normalization, as opposed to maximization, its goal, and the intervention that most benefits the person it's used with. If you could take the poll, that'd be great. If you could rank the interventions, least bad to worst in those regards, or overall regards, that'd be even better. And if you could comment with your rationale and/or what you know of these programs, that'd be most appreciated of all.

For the purposes of this question, I would like to know your thoughts on intervention programs, so while you can put 'no intervention' in there in your list of least objectionable interventions, I'd like to hear what you have to say about the programs, even if you think they're all bad (or all good, if anyone thinks that).

Thanks!
BigSister

You might like to give a short description of each or a link to basic descriptions for people who might be unsure which is which and need to clarify it or for people from different countries who might know the same techniques by different names or who might know the same names but the techniques might have been adapted somewhat for use elsewhere.

I don't know if any of the ones I am familiar with are in line with what is used overseas or not (I'm not American) so am not sure about contributing an answer myself.

theres also team TEACH,at least in the UK its widely used; http://www.team-teach.co.uk/
from own experiences,ABA and team TEACH have worked and still work the most with self.
extreme ABA/behaviorism worked the least and has lasting negative impact on self because of the physical and mental abuse had suffered at an intelectual disability institution and an ID acute hospital.

If applied correctly, so that it teaches "thinking about behavior," ABA works well.

When it is abused, and becomes "conditioning prescribed behaviors," ABA can be immediately crippling and lead to more long-term damage in terms of things like reduced functioning communication capacity, mistrust, increased anxiety, and PTSD (been there, done that, still in therapy from the therapy).

I don't think the necessary question is "What therapy are you going to use?" but "How are you going to apply this?" ANY therapy can be abused/misused in the wrong hands. What's important is to know the methods that are going to be employed and the goals the therapy is supposed to reach, and then to periodically assess whether the therapy in question is advancing progress toward those goals, accomplishing nothing, or actually retarding progress.

From my experience, different methods work best with different people. I have a personal bias toward ABA but I like when it's done in a way that also incorporates some methods from DIR/Floortime.

What does ESDM?