Association for Behavior Analysis International

The impact of the increasing prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder is an increasing need for effective interventions with robust outcomes. At the same time recent social media contains an escalating amount of content that questions the validity of ABA interventions. Independent community-based replications of the Lovaas model of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) continue to result in significant outcomes for many children in comparison to children receiving other community-based special education services. Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted access to services for a period of years. This symposium will include multiple measures of recent outcome data collected prior to the pandemic, as well as data that reflects the impact of the pandemic. The replications of EIBI programs include a sufficiently technological description of the interventions to analyze the essential treatment integrity variables that lead to maximal outcomes. In these large-scale implementations of EIBI for ASD, the relationship between treatment integrity variables and multiple measures of response to treatment is analyzed. The effects of the variables are analyzed by both group average measures and individual variability measures.

Audience members should have competence in basic implementation of ABA technology with persons with autism and their family members and teachers.

This presentation will include initial data comparing clinical outcomes scores, as measured by composite score gains and losses on the Vineland-3 Adaptive Behavioral Scales, across a group of clients who received direct telehealth services (n=394) and telehealth supervision (n=200) during the 2020 pandemic. Additionally, matched data sets (n=29), indicating 2019 composite score gains with 2020 composite score gains, will offer an initial picture of client progress during receipt of telehealth services, compared to that same client’s progress with prior in-person services. Additionally, as part of a multi-provider collaboration, 266 families, receiving either telehealth only (n=93) or a combination of in-person and telehealth (n=173) were surveyed to assess social validity and quality of life. Results of the survey indicated that, overall, caregivers were satisfied with telehealth services and found them beneficial. Barriers related to reduced caregiver satisfaction were identified. Finally, survey results intended to assess the confidence and perceived competence of behavior analysts prior to and following training on program and supervision modifications for telehealth will be presented. Based on feedback from behavior analysts who participated in the shift to telehealth, the authors will share a proposed assessment tool which may be helpful in identifying clinical appropriateness for telehealth supervision.