Abstract
The effectiveness of home-based early behavioral interventions for children (2:6–4:0 years old) with autistic spectrum disorders was studied over 9–10 months. Measures of autistic severity, intellectual, educational, and adaptive behavioral functioning were taken. There was no evidence of recovery from autism. High-intensity behavioral approaches (mean 30 h/week) produced greater gains than low-intensity programs (mean 12 h/week). Lovaas- and complete application of behavior analysis to schools approach-type interventions produced largest gains [similar to gains produced by longer-term clinic-based applied behavior analysis (ABA) programs]. Within the high-intensity groups, increased temporal input on the program was not associated with increased gains in the children. The results from clinic-based ABA trials were partially replicated on a home-based sample, using children with greater autistic and intellectual impairments.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by a grant from the South East Region Special Educational Needs Partnership (SERSEN, UK). We are very grateful for the help of the parents and children who participated in this study. Some of these data were initially discussed at the European Association for Behavior Analysis conference, Parma, Italy, 2003, and at the Behavioural Association of Ireland Conference, Galway, Eire, 2004.
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Reed, P., Osborne, L.A. & Corness, M. Brief Report: Relative Effectiveness of Different Home-based Behavioral Approaches to Early Teaching Intervention. J Autism Dev Disord 37, 1815–1821 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0306-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0306-8