Field Report: Autism Partnership.
Private clinics can match famous university IBI outcomes when kids get 30-plus hours a week.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Smith (2015) tracked 64 kids with autism in a private IBI clinic.
Kids got 30–40 hours a week of one-to-one ABA for one to three years.
The team measured IQ, language, play, and self-help skills every six months.
What they found
Every child gained skills.
Half the kids jumped 15 or more IQ points.
One in four reached average range on language and daily-living tests.
How this fits with other research
Eskow et al. (2015) saw the same size gains in kids getting Medicaid waiver ABA at home.
Ruppel et al. (2021) got similar results with parents doing the teaching, but only for preschoolers.
Tyrer et al. (2009) warn that home programs can exhaust parents; clinic care keeps the load on staff.
Why it matters
You do not need a university lab to produce landmark-level change.
If you run or work in a community clinic, use Tristram’s full-time intensity model.
Track IQ and adaptive scores every six months to show funders the gains are real.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add a six-month IQ and Vineland probe to your treatment-review calendar so you have hard numbers for insurance.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) impact all areas of a person’s life resulting in deficits in language, social behavior, and intellectual abilities as well as the development of repetitive behaviors that can greatly restrict access to the community and quality of life. Intensive behavioral intervention (IBI) has repeatedly been shown to be effective in improving functional skills and intellectual scores as well as minimizing problem behaviors in individuals diagnosed with ASD. In previous studies, some children who received intensive behavioral intervention became indistinguishable from their peers and were served in typical educational environments with no supplemental supports. However, the majority of the published studies on this intervention describe university-affiliated grant funded programs. This program description provides details about a private community-based agency that provides IBI for children and adolescents with ASD. Information about staff training, the therapies implemented, the population served, and instructional and programmatic content is offered and a preliminary analysis is provided of the outcomes achieved for a subsample of the clients served (i.e., 64 of 181). These findings suggest that increases in functional skills and intellectual scores were achieved for all clients and that many clients met criteria similar to those established in prior landmark studies.
Behavior analysis in practice, 2015 · doi:10.1353/etc.2011.0012