In a previous study, we compared the effects of just over one year of intensive behavior
analytic intervention (IBT) provided to 29 young children diagnosed with autism with two
eclectic (i.e., mixed-method) interventions (Howard, Sparkman, Cohen, Green, &
Stanislaw, 2005). One eclectic intervention (autism programming; AP) was designed
specifically for children with autism and was intensive in that it was delivered for an
average of 25–30 h per week (n = 16). The other eclectic intervention (generic
programming; GP) was delivered to 16 children with a variety of diagnoses and needs
for an average of 15–17 h per week. This paper reports outcomes for children in all three
groups after two additional years of intervention. With few exceptions, the benefits of IBT
documented in our first study were sustained throughout Years 2 and 3. At their final
assessment, children who received IBT were more than twice as likely to score in the
normal range on measures of cognitive, language, and adaptive functioning than were
children who received either form of eclectic intervention. Significantly more children in
the IBT group than in the other two groups had IQ, language, and adaptive behavior test
scores that increased by at least one standard deviation from intake to final assessment.
Although the largest improvements for children in the IBT group generally occurred during
Year 1, many children in that group whose scores were below the normal range after the
first year of intervention attained scores in the normal range of functioning with one or
two years of additional intervention. In contrast, children in the two eclectic treatment
groups were unlikely to attain scores in the normal range after the first year of intervention,
and many of those who had scores in the normal range in the first year fell out of the normal
range in subsequent years. There were no consistent differences in outcomes at Years 2 and
3 between the two groups who received eclectic interventions. These results provide
further evidence that intensive behavior analytic intervention delivered at an early age is
more likely to produce substantial improvements in young children with autism than
common eclectic interventions, even when the latter are intensive.