Cost comparison of early intensive behavioral intervention and treatment as usual for children with autism spectrum disorder in The Netherlands.

Peters-Scheffer et al. (2012) built a lifetime cost model for Dutch children with autism. They compared three years of full-time early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) against regular services.

The team added up therapy, school, and adult care costs for both groups. They ran the numbers out to age 65 to see which path cost society less.

EIBI saved about €1.1 million per child over a lifetime. The up-front therapy bill was large, but later savings on special schools and adult care more than paid it back.

Put simply: spend now on EIBI, save later on everything else.

Knapp et al. (2009) mapped UK autism costs at roughly £1 million per person. Nienke's Dutch model lines up with that figure but shows EIBI can flip the same million into savings rather than expenses.

Simpson et al. (2001) once pegged UK lifetime costs above £2.4 million. The Dutch study updates that older estimate with newer data and an intervention lens, arguing the right therapy can cut the bill in half.

Pye et al. (2024) recently surveyed 50 economic papers and flagged school fees as the heaviest family burden. Nienke's model supports that view: EIBI lowers those future school costs, which drives most of the €1 million saving.

If you write funding requests or advise families, wave this paper. It gives hard numbers: three years of full-time EIBI pays for itself by adulthood and then saves a million more. Use the figure when insurers or schools claim the therapy is 'too expensive.' Pair the savings data with Knapp et al. (2009) to show the cost of doing nothing is still about a million—just without the benefit.