'Best' Treatment for Autism Emerges

April 22, 2004 — -- Sophia Augier says she'll never forget what the father of an autistic child told her shortly after her own three sons were diagnosed with the condition.

She had been desperately searching for a way to prevent her sons from retreating from life, like so many others with autism — and he told her, "Get busy."

For Augier and her husband, Marc, that meant putting their sons on an intense therapy called ABA, or applied behavior analysis. It's been called controversial — but it's not new.

In fact, an informal survey of autism experts across the country shows that it is more widely practiced, especially as the number of autism cases rises. The Centers for Disease Control says one out of every 166 children now has an autism spectrum disorder.

ABA is a form of behavior modification which involves giving children one simple command at a time, which is repeated to them hour after hour, day after day, until they do it.

Then they are rewarded with praise, or a snack or a toy, until they can eventually do it on their own.

"ABA is one of the few approaches where there is strong empirical data demonstrating effectiveness," said Cynthia R. Johnson, the director of the Autism Center at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Autism therapy has ranged from gluten-free diets, to megavitamins, to anti-fungal and heavy-metal treatments, but "none of these interventions has evidence-based research supporting its use, and some of these interventions may be potentially dangerous," said Dr. Susan M. Anderson, director of the Autism Program at the University of Virginia's Children's Medical Center.

Joseph E. Morrow, a certified behavior analyst and president of Applied Behavior Consultants, said he was open to some of these treatments, like gluten-free diets and megavitamins, "but the fact remains that only ABA has scientific controlled studies supporting its effectiveness." He said his company only uses ABA.