ABA @ Home @ Last

This past Monday the new therapist that I hired started working with Zach at home, doing ABA therapy in an effort teach Zach life skills and bring his school program home, in order to help him generalize what he learns. The best outcomes for children like Zach have been attained when a child receives 40 hours per week of individual behavioral treatment. Intervention should always be customized as to content, but 40 hours per week remains the standard from which to deviate.

Individual ABA therapy, which was first developed in the 1960s by psychologist Ivar Lovaas, PhD, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), remains the only intervention that has been scientifically proven to be effective. In a landmark 1987 study, Lovaas found that nearly half the children who received 40 hours per week of ABA therapy were eventually able to complete normal first-grade classes, while none of children who received the therapy only 10 hours per week were able to do the same. Other researchers have replicated Lovaas's success--among them psychologist James Mulick, PhD, of Ohio State University, who finds an association between a form of ABA therapy he calls Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention and improvement in children's IQ scores.

While it is long overdue for Zach, it is certainly good news for him! I'll keep everybody posted on our bumble-bee's progress:)