Therapies for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Few studies directly comparing the effects of different treatment approaches are available
(for example, direct comparison of UCLA/Lovaas and ESDM), and few data on practical
effectiveness or feasibility beyond research studies exist, so questions remain about whether
reported findings would be observed on a larger scale within communities. Similarly, no studies
in this category reported harms of intervention.
Less intensive interventions to provide parent training for bolstering social communication
skills and managing challenging behaviors may be useful for younger children with ASDs,
particularly to improve social communication, language use, and potentially symptom severity
and family functioning. 108,109,120,295 However, while parent training programs can modify
parenting behaviors during interactions, data are limited about their contribution to specific child
improvements in the short- and long-term beyond simple language gains for some children.
Table 27. Summary of results of studies of early intensive behavioral and developmental
approaches
Intervention Study design/Quality Study results and overall strength of
evidence
UCLA/Lovaas-based
interventions
1 RCT / 1 fair 114
3 Nonrandomized trials / 3
fair, 103,110,126
5 Prospective cohorts / 3
fair, 105,125,129 2 poor 101,124
2 Retrospective cohorts / 2
poor 106,130
6 Prospective case
series 102,104,107,112,115,119
6 Retrospective case
series 111,113,118,121,122,127,131
101
• Young children receiving high intensity
interventions (>30 hours a week for 1-3 years
by well trained therapists) display
improvements in areas of cognitive, language,
adaptive functioning.
• Subgroups of children display a positive
response to this intervention, but the subgroup
with a positive response is not well
characterized.
• Strength of evidence for UCLA/Lovaas-based
intervention in affecting language, cognitive,
educational, and adaptive outcomes and ASD
symptom severity is low.