Abstract
We retrospectively compared 2 groups of children receiving either behavioral treatment (n=13) or eclectic treatment (n=15) for an average of 12 hours per week. Children were assessed on intelligence, language, adaptive functioning and maladaptive behavior at pretreatment and 2 years into treatment. The groups did not differ significantly at pretreatment. After 2 years of treatment, the behavioral group made larger gains than the eclectic group in most areas. However, gains were more modest than those reported in previous studies with children receiving more intensive behavioral treatment, and it is questionable whether they were clinically significant.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by grants from the Akershus University Hospital, the Helge Morset Fond, Norway; the Norwegian Research Institute for Children with Developmental Disabilities (NFBU); and the Norwegian Red Cross and Stiftelsen SOR. The authors would like to thank Dag Erik Eilertsen for his advice regarding design and in conducting the statistical analysis. Parts of this paper was presented at the 28th annual convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis, Toronto, Canada, May 2002, and at the inaugural Conference for the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability, Dublin, Ireland, June 2002.
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Eldevik, S., Eikeseth, S., Jahr, E. et al. Effects of Low-Intensity Behavioral Treatment for Children with Autism and Mental Retardation. J Autism Dev Disord 36, 211–224 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-005-0058-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-005-0058-x