Narrowing the gap: Effects of intervention on developmental trajectories in autism

Although still a matter of some debate, there is a growing body of research supporting Early and Intensive Behavioral Intervention as the intervention of choice for children with autism. Learning rate is an alternative to change in standard scores as an outcome measure in studies of early intervention. Learning rates can be displayed graphically as developmental trajectories, which are easy to understand and avoid some of the counter-intuitive properties of changes in standard scores. The data used in this analysis were from 453 children with autism, previously described by Eldevik et al. Children receiving Early and Intensive Behavioral Intervention exhibited significantly steeper developmental trajectories than children in the control group, in both intelligence and adaptive behaviors. However, there was a considerable variability in individual learning rates within the group receiving Early and Intensive Behavioral Intervention. This variability could partly be explained by the intensity of the treatment, partly by children's intake intelligence quotient age-equivalents. Age at intake did not co-vary with learning rate.