Evidence About ABA Treatment
for Young Children with Autism:
The Impact of Treatment
Intensity on Outcomes

This is one of the best pieces of work I have read in a long time! It's insightful, very well-written, and impactful. Well done, CASP!

Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh, Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD)

Overview

This paper—a companion to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder—summarizes evidence about early, comprehensive, intensive ABA treatment as well as generally accepted standards of care for young children receiving ABA. It also overviews the processes relevant to developing and updating standards.

Evidence About ABA Treatment for Young Children with Autism also addresses a recent meta-analysis of treatment outcomes by Dr. Sigmund Eldevik and his colleagues. The paper highlights the critical role of treatment intensity on outcomes. And it provides benchmarks to use in evaluating the outcomes of ABA treatment delivered to young autistic children. These same benchmarks can be applied to evaluate the effectiveness of other treatment approaches delivered to this pediatric population.

Further, the paper evaluates recent studies in which the authors claim that both high and low treatment intensities produce similar outcomes. It contextualizes those claims by identifying concerns about the methodology, design, and understanding of early intensive intervention for young children with autism in these studies.

Finally, it provides resources to help parents and caregivers understand the variables that influence children’s outcomes in early, comprehensive, intensive ABA.

Click here to read the paper.

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary.
• Introduction.
• Generally Accepted Standards of Care.
• Evidence-Based Practice.
• Evaluating the Evidence.
• Generally Accepted Standards of Care for Young Children.
• Relationship Between Scope and Intensity in Treatment.
• Evidence Base About Early Comprehensive Intensive ABA Treatment for Young Children with Autism.
• Critiques of Recent Studies.
• Summary.
• References.

Appendices

• Appendix A. Sample daily schedule for early comprehensive intensive ABA treatment.
• Appendix B. Infographic for parents and caregivers about ABA treatment for young children.
• Appendix C. Guidelines and references to share with parents and caregivers about ABA treatment for young children.
• Appendix D. Potential Topics for Clinicians to Discuss with Parents and Caregivers Regarding ABA Treatment for Young Children.

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