Autism Information

March 9, 2001 -- -- Applied behavior analysis is an educational intervention technique that can be used to teach children with autism. In ABA, skills are broken down into very small components and taught systematically -- one skill building the foundation for the next.

Since children with autism tend to require many more opportunities to learn than typicallydeveloping peers, a great deal of repetition is provided. In addition, data are collected to ensure that the strategy used to teach a particular skill is, in fact, working.

Research has shown that some children who receive this type of intervention intensively (30 to 40 hours per week) and early in their lives may reach a point where they can participate in regular education settings with typically developing peers. Some may even lose the diagnosis of autism. However, ABA intervention works differently for different children.

Read a mother's account of her son's success with ABA intervention.

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