This study examined progress after 1 year of treatment for children with autism who received a mean of 36 hours per week one-to-one University of California at Los Angeles Applied Behavior Analysis (UCLA ABA) treatment.
Two types of service provision were compared: an intensive clinic based treatment model with all treatment personnel (N = 23), and an intensive parent managed treatment model with intensive supervision only (N = 21).
A non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants (N = 13) examined whether progress was associated with ABA treatment or confounders. Between intake and follow-up, children in both groups improved significantly on IQ, visual-spatial IQ, language comprehension, expressive language, social skills, motor skills and adaptive behaviour. There were no significant differences between the two groups on any of the measures at follow-up.
Mean IQ for participants in both groups increased by 16 points between intake and follow-up. These findings are consistent with previous studies demonstrating the benefits of ABA treatment.
Diane Hayward K Young Autism Project, UK
Svein Eikeseth Akershus University College, Norway,
Catherine Gale UK Young Autism Project, UK
Sally Morgan UK Young Autism Project, UK
