Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI), when delivered through small model programs, has been unequivocally established as an effective treatment for many children with autism. The next major research need is to evaluate the effectiveness of EIBI when delivered to large, community-based samples, since this is how the majority of children access treatment. The present study involved a retrospective analysis of archival data from children who have participated in the EIBI program at St.Amant, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Similar to findings reported by Perry and colleagues (2008), results showed that children (n = 100) achieved statistically and clinically significant reduction in autism symptom severity, as well as statistically and clinically significant improvement in language skills, adaptive behaviour skills, cognitive level, and rate of development after one year of intervention. Furthermore, when it came to achieving both statistically and clinically significant gains (including more “typical” or normative levels of functioning), children identified as “higher functioning” at intake outperformed “lower functioning” children on all standardized outcome measures. For the smaller subset of children (n = 50) with data available at Intake, Year 1, and Year 2, statistically and clinically significant reductions in autism symptom severity were observed after two years of intervention, as well as statistically and clinically significant improvement in language skills, adaptive behaviour skills, and rate of development. Moderate gains in IQ were also observed, but these gains did not reach statistical significance, perhaps owing to sample size restriction for this measure (n = 11). Across all outcome measures, children identified as “higher functioning” at intake were far more likely to achieve “typical” levels of functioning after two years of intervention. As for predictors of outcome at Year 1, language and cognitive functioning at intake offered the strongest predictive value after one year of intervention. Finally, 13 children (13%) had achieved Best Outcome at Year 1; these children achieved notable gains on all outcome measures, and tended to be less severe diagnostically and much higher functioning at intake. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI), when delivered through small model programs, has been unequivocally established as an effective treatment for many children with autism. The next major research need is to evaluate the effectiveness of EIBI when delivered to large, community-based samples, since this is how the majority of children access treatment. The present study involved a retrospective analysis of archival data from children who have participated in the EIBI program at St.Amant, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Similar to findings reported by Perry and colleagues (2008), results showed that children (n = 100) achieved statistically and clinically significant reduction in autism symptom severity, as well as statistically and clinically significant improvement in language skills, adaptive behaviour skills, cognitive level, and rate of development after one year of intervention. Furthermore, when it came to achieving both statistically and clinically significant gains (including more “typical” or normative levels of functioning), children identified as “higher functioning” at intake outperformed “lower functioning” children on all standardized outcome measures. For the smaller subset of children (n = 50) with data available at Intake, Year 1, and Year 2, statistically and clinically significant reductions in autism symptom severity were observed after two years of intervention, as well as statistically and clinically significant improvement in language skills, adaptive behaviour skills, and rate of development. Moderate gains in IQ were also observed, but these gains did not reach statistical significance, perhaps owing to sample size restriction for this measure (n = 11). Across all outcome measures, children identified as “higher functioning” at intake were far more likely to achieve “typical” levels of functioning after two years of intervention. As for predictors of outcome at Year 1, language and cognitive functioning at intake offered the strongest predictive value after one year of intervention. Finally, 13 children (13%) had achieved Best Outcome at Year 1; these children achieved notable gains on all outcome measures, and tended to be less severe diagnostically and much higher functioning at intake. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that limits one’s ability to engage in a mutual, social interaction. Joint attention, imitation and social involvement are social abilities together with other cognitive functions that determine speechdevelopment. These abilities can be less developed in children with ASD compared to typically developing children and therefore children with ASD may have difficulties acquiring various social skills. Applied behaviour analysis (ABA) is a science which can be used to train language skills, for instance, the ability to request (mand) something or to label (tact) something. The purpose of this study was to investigate if the ability to mand and tact increased after intensive training. Three children participated in this study, where the amount of mands and tacts were calculated before training and 7–9 weeks after training had begun. The results confirmed that communicative initiatives increased among all participants. It is not possible to exclude that other factors may have affected the outcome, such as the learning effect of the experimenters or the maturation of the children during the course of this study. The results have not been significantly tested and therefore cannot be generalized to the population. More research is needed within the area. / Autismspektrumtillstånd (AST) är en funktionsnedsättning som begränsar bland annat förmågan till ömsesidig social interaktion. Delad uppmärksamhet, imitation och socialt engagemang är sociala förmågor som tillsammans med andra kognitiva förmågor ligger till grund för språkutvecklingen. Dessa förmågor kan vara mindre utvecklade hos barn med AST jämfört med typiskt utvecklade barn. Barn med AST kan således uppvisa svårigheter med att tillägna sig vissa språkliga förmågor. Tillämpad Beteendeanalys (TBA) är en vetenskap som kan användas för att träna språkliga färdigheter, bland annat förmågan att begära något (mand) och förmågan att benämna något (tact). Studiens syfte var att genom observation undersöka ifall förmågan att begära och benämna ökar efter intensiv beteendeanalytisk träning. Tre barn deltog i studien där antalet begära- och benämnatillfällen räknades innan påbörjad träning samt 7–9 veckor efter påbörjad träning. Resultatet visade att antal kommunikativa initiativ ökade hos samtliga deltagare. Det går inte att utesluta att andra faktorer kan ha påverkat resultatet, såsom inlärningseffekt hos testledarna eller mognad hos barnen under studiens gång. Resultaten har inte signifikansprövats och kan därmed ej generaliseras till populationsnivå. Mer forskning behövs inom området.

In many early intensive behavioural intervention (EIBI) programs, such as the St.Amant Autism Programs in Manitoba, the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills-Revised (ABLLS-R) is used as an assessment guide, a curriculum guide, and a skills tracking system. The ABLLS-R lists a total of 544 potential training tasks. In the St.Amant Autism Programs, the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities-Revised (ABLA-R) is also used to assess a child’s ability to learn to perform 6 tasks, called levels, which are hierarchical in difficulty. Research has demonstrated that training tasks comparable to failed ABLA-R levels are very difficult to teach using standard prompting and reinforcement procedures, and training tasks that are mismatched to a client’s highest-passed ABLA-R level result in more aberrant behaviours than matched tasks. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the difficulty of the training tasks taught to children enrolled in the St.Amant Autism Early Learning Program matched the learning abilities of the children. In order to do so, five questions were examined based on the ABLLS-R, the ABLA-R, and archival data from the St.Amant Autism Programs. The results reveal several potentially important findings. First, observers who were knowledgeable about the ABLA-R reliably categorized 99 of the 544 ABLLS-R tasks into individual ABLA-R levels. Second, for a random sample of those 99 ABLLS-R tasks, Autism Consultants from the St.Amant Autism Programs averaged 90.5% agreement that those tasks were taught at the categorized ABLA-R levels. Third, across a sample of 14 children, 81% of their training tasks were mismatched to each child’s highest-passed ABLA-R level. Fourth, for that sample of 14 children and across their 31 maladaptive behaviour assessments, 61% of the assessments had a score representative of maladaptive behaviours. Fifth, for that same sample of children, their rates of acquisition of new training tasks were lower for mismatched tasks than for matched tasks. These findings have important implications for potentially improving the services that children with ASD are receiving from the St.Amant Autism Programs and other EIBI programs. / February 2016

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