Saturday, April 25, 2009

How ABA/EIBI Can Change Autism Trajectory

"...Early intensive intervention offers considerable benefit.
This concept became clear in the 1980s and has wide support today,[3],[4],[5] based on the success of early training compared with treatment that starts after children begin school...there is evidence that every year intervention is delayed progressively reduces outcome,...Brain plasticity refers to this ability of the brain to change under genetic and environmental forces, and this plasticity is at the heart of why earlier intervention works so much better than later intervention...So what does this have to do with autism? Plasticity explains why autism...can be helped by intervention in the form of intensive teaching, and why the younger the intervention is started, the better it works...The concept that early intervention is about brain plasticity is growing. [3],[8]..."
ARTICLE
Special Commentary: How Can Early, Intensive Training Help a Genetic Disorder?
William A. Altemeier, MD; and Leah E. Altemeier, PhD
Pediatric Annals 38(4), 167-172. March 2008,

SELECTED REFERENCES

3. Dawson G. (2008). Early behavioral intervention, brain plasticity, and the prevention of autism spectrum disorder.
Development and Psychopathology, 20(3), 775-804.
doi:10.1017/S0954579408000370

4. Lovaas I.O. (1987).
Behavioral treatment and normal educational and intellectual functioning in young autistic children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 3-9.

5. Johnson CP, Meyers SM (2007).
Council on Children with disabilities. Identification and evaluation of children with autism spectrum disorder. Pediatrics, 120(5), 1183-1215.
doi:10.1542/peds.2007-2361

8. Oberman L. M., & Pascual-Leone, A. (2008). Cortical plasticity: A proposed mechanism by which genomic factors lead to the behavioral and neurological phenotype of autism spectrum and psychotic-spectrum disorders.
Behavioral and Brain Science, 31(3), 276-277.
doi:10.1017/S0140525X08004378

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