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In Memoriam: O. Ivar Lovaas (1927–2010)
... Over the 20 th and 21 st centuries ABA has been refined and professionalized into a method applied by trained technicians and assistive technologies (Gruson-Wood 2016). The technique was initially developed by Ivar Lovaas in the 1960s and 1970s to change the behaviors of "feminine boys" and autistic children in two different labs directed by Lovaas at UCLA (Larsson and Scott 2011). Gibson and Douglas (2018) demonstrate a powerful connection between ABA research on these two populations: ...
This article analyzes convergences in the ways that both deafness and autism are framed as crises that require immediate (and often expensive) professional intervention. Parents receive messages that failure to therapeutically intervene will prevent their children from living normative lives. We demonstrate how therapy techniques such as Auditory Verbal Therapy and Applied Behavioral Analysis have proliferated to address these crises. We explore the development of professional organizations and training programs devoted to AVT and ABA and we consider how AVT and ABA professionals define “optimal outcomes” that are supposedly achieved when diagnosis is removed or declassified. In contrast to professional views, we argue for alternative perceptions of these therapeutic processes and their ostensible outcomes based on accounts by d/Deaf and Autistic adults. In addition, we argue that the (neutral) language of outcomes obscures the active work required and backgrounds the different kinds of labor and ideologies at play. While AVT and ABA experts argue that it is increasingly possible to achieve optimal outcomes, we question the sensory and relational costs of these outcomes and the way that they prevent other ways of being, sensing, and communicating from taking place.
... Those who applied such practices included key developers of the methodology, such as Dr O. Ivaar Lovaas. 86,87 This history needs to be openly admitted and the practices clearly renounced. There are other continuing ethical concerns, 88 as well as issues with the evidence base of behavioral approaches more generally. ...
... Those who applied such practices included key developers of the methodology such as Dr O. Ivaar Lovaas. 86,87 This history needs to be openly admitted and the practices clearly renounced. There are other continuing ethical concerns 88 , as well as issues with the evidence base of behavioural approaches more generally. ...
There have been widespread expressions of dissatisfaction among autistic people and communities regarding the recommendations of the Lancet Commission on the future of care and clinical research in autism.1 The authors of this article discussed the Commission’s report and some wider issues related to autism research in general as a committee of autistic people, the Global Autistic Task Force on Autism Research, comprising autistic professionals and representatives of organisations run by and for autistic people, focusing on advocacy, service provision, education and participatory research. The Commission has been addressed in an open letter that drew attention to some of the points also discussed in this article.
For over 50 years, intervention methods informed by the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) have been empirically researched and clinically implemented for autistics/individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Despite the plethora of evidence for the effectiveness of ABA-based interventions, some autism rights and neurodiversity activists have expressed concerns with ABA-based interventions. Concerns have included discontent with historical events and possible harm from the procedures and goals targeted. The purpose of this manuscript is to examine some expressed concerns about ABA-based intervention and suggest productive ways of moving forward to provide the best outcomes for autistics/individuals diagnosed with ASD. The authors represent stakeholders from multiple sectors including board certified behavior analysts, licensed psychologists, parents, and autistics/individuals diagnosed with ASD.
We have treated 20 autistic children with behavior therapy. At intake, most of the children were severely disturbed, having symptoms indicating an extremely poor prognosis. The children were treated in separate groups, and some were treated more than once, allowing for within- and between-subject replications of treatment effects. We have employed reliable measures of generalization across situations and behaviors as well as across time (follow-up). The findings can be summarized as follows: (1) Inappropriate behaviors (self-stimulation and echolalia) decreased during treatment, and appropriate behaviors (appropriate speech, appropriate play, and social non-verbal behaviors) increased. (2) Spontaneous social interactions and the spontaneous use of language occurred about eight months into treatment for some of the children. (3) IQs and social quotients reflected improvement during treatment. (4) There were no exceptions to the improvement, however, some of the children improved more than others. (5) Follow-up measures recorded 1 to 4 yr after treatment showed that large differences between groups of children depended upon the post-treatment environment (those groups whose parents were trained to carry out behavior therapy continued to improve, while children who were institutionalized regressed). (6) A brief reinstatement of behavior therapy could temporarily re-establish some of the original therapeutic gains made by the children who were subsequently institutionalized.
This study extends findings on the effects of intensive applied behavior analytic treatment for children with autism who began treatment at a mean age of 5.5 years. The behavioral treatment group (n = 13, 8 boys) was compared to an eclectic treatment group (n = 12, 11 boys). Assignment to groups was made independently based on the availability of qualified supervisors. Both behavioral and eclectic treatment took place in public kindergartens and elementary schools for typically developing children. At a mean age of 8 years, 2 months, the behavioral treatment group showed larger increases in IQ and adaptive functioning than did the eclectic group. The behavioral treatment group also displayed fewer aberrant behaviors and social problems at follow-up. Results suggest that behavioral treatment was effective for children with autism in the study.
The statements in Edwards Personal Preference Schedule were used to determine the degree of relationship between social desirability judgments made by Norwegian and American college students. 86 Norwegian Ss averaging 17 years of age and 152 college students of somewhat higher age rate the statements on a 9-point scale ranging from extremely socially desirable to extremely socially undesirable. The correlation between the scale values of the 2 ethnic groups was .78 which indicates a high agreement with 61% of the variance being common.
This paper reports on three studies concerned with investigating variables which controlled self-destructive behaviors in a schizophrenic child. The self-destructive behaviors included head- and arm-banging which was usually so intense that the child's skin was discolored, bruised, and swollen.Methodologically, the experimental procedure followed an intrasubject replication design which involved repeated presentations of the same experimental variables in order to insure reliability.The results illustrate the lawfulness and regularity which characterized the self-destructive behavior. The data clearly show the functional relationships between very specific environmental operations and the self-destruction: reinforcement and extinction of other behaviors in a given setting controlled the frequency and magnitude of self-destructive behavior, and delivery of sympathetic comments, contingent upon the occurrence of self-destructive behavior, increased its frequency and magnitude.Conceptually, the system which best fit the observed relationships inyolves a consideration of self-destructive behavior as learned, operant, or instrumental social behavior.
An account is given of the treatment of a pre-school child who had serious behavioural and physical handicaps. In a sense this is a study involving both psychotherapy and rehabilitation. The treatment consisted of applying laboratory-developed techniques through the attendants and the parents over a seven-month period.
Two mute schizophrenic children were taught imitative speech within an operant conditioning framework. The training procedure
consisted of a series of increasingly fine verbal discriminations; the children were rewarded for closer and closer reproductions
of the attending adults' speech. We found that reward delivered contingent upon imitation was necessary for development of
imitation. Furthermore, the newly established imitation was shown to have acquired rewarding properties for the children.
After a very intensive behavioral intervention, an experimental group of 19 preschool-age children with autism achieved less restrictive school placements and higher IQs than did a control group of 19 similar children by age (Lovaas, 1987). The present study followed-up this finding by assessing subjects at a mean age of 11.5 years. Results showed that the experimental group preserved its gains over the control group. The 9 experimental subjects who had achieved the best outcomes at age 7 received particularly extensive evaluations indicating that 8 of them were indistinguishable from average children on tests of intelligence and adaptive behavior. Thus, behavioral treatment may produce long-lasting and significant gains for many young children with autism.
The behavior which leads to a person’s admission to a mental hospital often involves danger to himself or others, withdrawal from normal social functions, or a dramatic change from his usual mode of behaving. The professional staff of the psychiatric hospital directs its major efforts toward the discovery of the flaw in the patient’s mental apparatus which presumably underlies his disturbing and dangerous behavior. Following the medical paradigm, it is presumed that once the basic disfunction has been properly identified the appropriate treatment will be undertaken and the various manifestations of the disfunction will disappear.
Hypothesized that increasing magnitude of induced muscular tension (squeezing a dynamometer), manifest anxiety (Taylor scale), and muscle tension (eye blink rate) should be more beneficial to the learning of highly associated pairs of adjectives than to competing pairs with lowly associated pairs falling between these extremes. While there is support for a summative and interchangeable relationship between muscular tension and induced muscle tension, there is no support for a summative relationship between manifest anxiety and induced tension or for a differential effect of the magnitude of any of these variables on the various adjective pairs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Twenty-four children with autism were randomly assigned to a clinic-directed group, replicating the parameters of the early intensive behavioral treatment developed at UCLA, or to a parent-directed group that received intensive hours but less supervision by equally well-trained supervisors. Outcome after 4 years of treatment, including cognitive, language, adaptive, social, and academic measures, was similar for both groups. After combining groups, we found that 48% of all children showed rapid learning, achieved average posttreatment scores, and at age 7, were succeeding in regular education classrooms. Treatment outcome was best predicted by pretreatment imitation, language, and social responsiveness. These results are consistent with those reported by Lovaas and colleagues (Lovaas, 1987; McEachin, Smith, & Lovaas, 1993).
Although previous studies have shown favorable results with early intensive behavioral treatment (EIBT) for children with autism, it remains important to replicate these findings, particularly in community settings. The authors conducted a 3-year prospective outcome study that compared 2 groups: (1) 21 children who received 35 to 40 hours per week of EIBT from a community agency that replicated Lovaas' model of EIBT and (2) 21 age- and IQ-matched children in special education classes at local public schools. A quasi-experimental design was used, with assignment to groups based on parental preference. Assessments were conducted by independent examiners for IQ (Bayley Scales of Infant Development or Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence), language (Reynell Developmental Language Scales), nonverbal skill (Merrill-Palmer Scale of Mental Tests), and adaptive behavior (Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales). Analyses of covariance, with baseline scores as covariates and Year 1-3 assessments as repeated measures, revealed that, with treatment, the EIBT group obtained significantly higher IQ (F = 5.21, p = .03) and adaptive behavior scores (F = 7.84, p = .01) than did the comparison group. No difference between groups was found in either language comprehension (F = 3.82, p = .06) or nonverbal skill. Six of the 21 EIBT children were fully included into regular education without assistance at Year 3, and 11 others were included with support; in contrast, only 1 comparison child was placed primarily in regular education. Although the study was limited by the nonrandom assignment to groups, it does provide evidence that EIBT can be successfully implemented in a community setting.
Screams, slaps, and love, Life
- A Grant
Programmed instruction in the classroom
- J S Birnbrauer
- S W Bijou
- M M Wolf
- J D Kidder
Researcher reports progress against autism
- D Goleman
Opening the road to an enlightened future
- O I Lovaas
- K Budd
- T Stokes