Long-term Outcome for Children with Autism Who Received Early Intensive Behavioral Treatment

After a very tntenstve behavtoral tnterventton, an e.xpeirtmental group oJr 19 preschool-age chtldren with auttsm achteved less restrl(:;ttve school place~nents and htgher IQs than dtd a control group of 19 stmtlar chtla'ren by age 7 (Lovaas, 1987) .The present study followed-up thts ftnding by a.I;sesstng subjects at a mean age of 11.5 years. Results showed that the experimental group preseroed tts gains over the control group. 11Je 9 experimental subjects whlo had achteved tl,e best outcomes at age 7 received parttcularly extenstve eval~~attons tndtcattn~~ that 8 of them were tndtsttngutshable from average chtldren on tests of tntelltgen,ce and adapttve behavtor. Thus. behavioral treatment may pn)duce long-Iasttn,g and stgntftcant gatns for many young chtldren wtth auttsm. Infanttle auttsm is a condition marked by severe impairment in intellectual, social, and emotional functioning. Its onset OCClKS in infancy, and the prognosis appears to be extremely poor CLotter, 1978). For example, in the longest prospective follow-up study witJi1 a sound method,ological design , Rutter (1970) found that only 1 of 64 subjects with autism (fewer than 2%) could be considered free of clinical11' significant problems by adulthood, as evidenced by holding a jo,b, living independently, and maintaining :!n active and age..appropriate sodal life. 111e remaining subjt:cts showed numerous dysfunctions, such as marked oddities in behavior, social isolation, and florid psychopathology .The majority of subjects required supervised living conditions. Professionals have attempted a wide variety of interventions in an effort to help children witl:l autism. For mar:ly years, no scientific evidence showed that any of these interventioru; brightened the children 's long-tenn progno:5is CDeMyer et al., 1981). How-~ \) I Department of Psychology ' in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctoral degree. The authors express their deep appreciation to the many students at UCLA who served as therapists and helped to make this study possible. Special thanks to Bruce Baker and Duane Buhrmester 1 who helped in the design of this study. Requests for reprints of this article, copies of the Clinical Rating Scale, or additional information about this study should be sent to 0.