O. Ivar Lovaas s
University of California, Los Angeles
Laura Schreibman
Claremont Men's College
Robert L. Koegel
University of California, Santa Barbara


Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia



h7 the very short span of 12 years, behavior modification has contributed in a
major way to the education of the autistic child, lts ma/or contribution lies in its
demonstrated effectiveness. As such, it is the only intervention which has beers
empirically demonstrated to offer help for autistic children. Each child who
underwent treamzent made nzeasurable progress, even though the progress was
slow and incremental and few children became "normal. "
When we talk about autistic children we are describing children who manifest
several characteristic pathological behaviors (e.g., social withdrawal, self-stimulation,
ritualistic behavior, echolalic and psychotic speech, apparent sensory
deficit, affective impoverishment). When using such diagnostic label one is typically
conceptualizing autism as a distinct e n t i t y ; an underlying process which is
seen as the cause of these deviant behaviors. Indeed, a great deal of research has
focused on this one underlying process as the basis for the psychopathology.
~Presented at the First International Kanner Colloquium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
October 3t-November 2, 1973 and to appear in Child Development, Deviations, and
Treatment. Plenum Publishing Corporation (in press). Portions of this paper have previously
appeared in Chapter VII of the Seventy-second Yearbook of the National Society for
the Study of Education, Behavior Modification h~ Education, 1973.
2The research in our laboratory was sponsored by USPHS Research Grant No. 11440. from
the National Institute of Mental Health, and EHA Title VI-B, No. 42-00000-0000832/025,
from the California Department of Education to the Office of the County Superintendent
of Schools, Santa Barbara, California.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. O. Ivax Lovaas, Department of Psychology,
University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024



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