Lovaas technique
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The Lovaas technique, a form of Applied Behavior Analysis, is a therapy for children diagnosed with autism or related disorders. It is an intensive behavioral intervention which is carried out early in the development of autistic children. It was developed by O. Ivar Lovaas based on the research done by Lovaas and his assistants (Lovaas, O. I. 1987, Behavioral treatment and normal intellectual and educational functioning in autistic children; Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 3-9) that claimed to find that 47% of those children that had received 30-40 hours of intensive therapy were mainstreamed into regular classrooms, and were classified as "indistinguishable" from their peers in follow-up studies. While the therapy has always relied principally on positive reinforcements of preferred behavior, Lovaas's original technique also included aversives such as striking, shouting "No!" at the child, or using electroshocks[1]. These procedures have been widely abandoned for over a decade. A review of the literature [2] by autistic activist Michelle Dawson finds that the method has become less effective since these stimuli were abandoned, but many replications of Lovaas' 1987 study have yielded results in the 40-50% range. More current studies, such as the 2006 Howard et al. study, have demonstrated dramatic improvement for children enrolled in DTT style 40-hour ABA programs with 1:1 teacher/child ratio. This is in direct contrast to moderate gains from so-called "eclectic" programs that combine many autism-specific methodologies, despite even a 1:1 teacher/child ratio, and generalized multi-disability special education classes, which scored lowest in terms of benefit to the child.
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