The field of ASD intervention research is in dire need of treatment response measures that adequately capture subtle changes in social communication behaviors. This panel presents recent findings from different research groups, introducing several advances in the development of outcome measures. We open with a presentation that reviews early intervention literature and underscores the need for the development of outcome measures. The next two presentations provide initial validity of a newly developed treatment response measure known as the Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC) in two independent samples. We close with a presentation that extends this work to explore whether automated analyses of child vocalizations using the LENA voice recorder can be useful in identifying treatment response. Together this panel provides both an overview of our current challenges and of initial cutting-edge results for future researchers to expand upon. Implications for intervention research, behavioral phenotyping, and clinical practice will be discussed.