The effectiveness of applied behavior analytic interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A meta-analytic study

Background: Behavior Analytic interventions are interventions based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). They are widely used with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), they are highly effective, and are the most-widely studied types of interventions for children with ASD. Nevertheless, findings are not consistent regarding the degree of its effectiveness. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to provide an up-to-date and thorough evaluation of ABA programs for children with ASD using state of the art meta-analytic methodology. Method: For the purposes of the present analysis, 29 studies met the inclusion criteria and were consequently analyzed. Effectiveness was evaluated in terms of three domains pertaining to child-related variables: a) IQ scores provided by verbal and non-verbal standardized tests, b) receptive and expressive language, and c) adaptive behavior. This evaluation included comparisons of pre- and post-intervention outcomes rather than comparisons between experimental and control groups. Results and conclusions: The findings indicated that ABA programs are moderately to highly effective bringing significant benefits for children with ASD in the aforementioned areas. Specifically, they were very effective in improving intellectual abilities (g = 0.740); moderately to very effective in improving communication skills (g = 0.650), expressive-language skills (g = 0.742) and receptive- language skills (g = 0597); moderately effective in improving IQ provided by non-verbal tests (g = 0.463), adaptive behavior (in total) (g = 0.422), socialization (g = 0.444); and had low effectiveness in improving daily living skills (g = 0.138).