ABA (was: Deb, tell me about Garett)

April 28, 2008

Just a quick FYI, the effectiveness statistics for ABA are highly

controversial - and I never heard it was as much as 75%. O. Ivar Lovaas

found 47% effectiveness among his original study, but he used aversives and

believed these were key to ABA's success. There are newer methods fo ABA

that don't use aversives now. By the way, ABA isn't specifically for

autistics, it is also used on (healthy) adults in some forms. And besides,

every therapeutic intervention has some behavioral components, whether it is

TEACCH, RDI, son-rise, gentle teaching, whatever - and I'm pretty sure

professionals using these methods could find similar effectivenss statistics

if they just bothered to organize themselves and publish studies in journals

(or set up their own, cause ABA has several peer-reviewed jorunals entirely

devoted to itself). As for the 40 hours: very few children in Lovaas'

original group actually did receive 40 hours of therapy. It also depends on

whether you integrate the therapeutic mehtod into a child's daily life. For

example, son-rise can be easily implemented into a child's natural

environment and should be done by the primary caregivers. TEACCH is also

quite often applied " incidentally " , and I would b enot at all surprised if

parents learned ABA techniques to impleement in their child's daily life.

Then is it therapy or is it really a specific form of raising a child?

Astrid

astrid@...

Re: Deb, tell me about Garett

> Stacie, ABA is Applied Behavior Analysis. It is a behavioral method of

> working with autistic children begun by Dr. Lovass out in California. It

> is an

> intensive one on one therapy for 40 hours a week. It is the only method I

> know of

> that has statistical data to support its effectiveness with %47 of those

> who

> receive early intervention. Pat K ************** Need a new

> ride? Check out the

> largest site for U.S. used car listings at AOL Autos.

>

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