Early Behavioral Intervention


The amount of sacrifice a family must give is almost unimaginable to those who have never seen a working, intensive program. The commitment should not be made lightly and should be made by families having researched a variety of therapies. Intensive ABA programs have proven success (in peer-reviewed journals) but all are not the same.

Simply calling an ABA program “ABA” does not put it in the same category as those programs which have demonstrated best outcomes for children with autism.

According to M.J. Guralnick in Behavioral intervention for young children with autism: A manual for parents and professionals (1996b), among others, successful early intervention programs should entail the following six components:

  1. They should emphasize skill development through positive reinforcement
  2. Each should begin with an assessment of the child’s current functioning level in regards of skills and deficits
  3. Therapy should cover all skill areas
  4. Utilize data in decision-making and measurement of individual performance
  5. Require parent-training
  6. Be directed and supervised by those with a minimum of a Master’s degree in behavior analysis and extensive hands-on experience in providing ABA to children.
Research has also shown that intervention for children with autism and other developmental disabilities has the greatest success when it is implemented for 25-40 hours per week (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General’s Executive Summary. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, 1999.).

According to Lovaas, in the landmark study titled, “Behavioral treatment and normal intellectual and educational functioning in autistic children” (1987), published in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, “Parents worked as part of the treatment team throughout the intervention; they were extensively trained in the treatment procedures so that treatment could take place for almost all waking hours.” Up to 47% of the children in his study reached levels within normal functioning after 2 or more years of therapy.

To learn more about how we structure our early behavioral intervention and home programs, click here