08/27/2026
Read CASP's white paper "Evidence About ABA Treatment for Young Children with Autism: The Impact of Treatment Intensity on Outcomes." https://www.casproviders.org/evidence-intensive-early-aba
The publication—a companion to CASP's ABA Practice Guidelines—summarizes evidence about early, comprehensive, intensive ABA treatment. It also overviews generally accepted standards of care for young children receiving ABA as well as the processes for developing and updating standards.
We address a recent meta-analysis of treatment outcomes by Dr. Sigmund Eldevik and his colleagues. The paper also highlights the critical importance of treatment intensity to outcomes and provide benchmarks to use in evaluating ABA treatment outcomes delivered to young autistic children.
These same benchmarks can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of other treatment approaches for the same population.
Further, the paper evaluates recent studies in which authors claim that both high and low treatment intensities produce similar outcomes.
We provide context to the studies’ claims, raising concerns about their methodology, design, and understanding of early intensive intervention.
Finally, the paper provides resources to help parents and caregivers understand the variables that influence children’s outcomes in early, comprehensive, intensive ABA.
