Autism Therapy: meta-analysis

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The Effectiveness of Intervention on the Behavior of Individuals with Autism: A Meta-Analysis Using Percentage of Data Points Exceeding the Median of Baseline Phase (PEM)
Behavior Modification, by Ma, H. - H., published in 2009, summarized Oct 21, 2010

Some applied behavior analysis (ABA) approaches are more helpful than others when teaching social skills to people with autism.

The aim of this review article was to compare applied behavior analysis (ABA) techniques to treat autism. The study found five helpful ways to use ABA: priming, self-control, training, positive reinforcement plus punishment, and presenting preferential activities. These interventions were helpful for all ages and both genders. The least helpful use of ABA was in teaching perspective-taking skills. The author found that it worked better to train social skills as a whole instead of training just a single type of social skill.


Meta-Analysis of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention for Children with Autism
Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, by Eldevik, S., Hastings RP, Hughes JC, Jahr E., Eikeseth S., and Cross S., published in 2009, summarized Jun 8, 2010

Research suggests that early intensive behavioral intervention is the best therapy for children with autism.

The purpose of this study was to review the research on early and intense applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy for children with autism. The authors looked only at interventions based on the Lovaas UCLA/YAP model. The review covered 34 studies. The authors found a large increase in IQ and improved autism symptoms after early intensive behavioral intervention. The results suggest that a formal Lovaas treatment approach works better than a mixture (eclectic blend) of treatments.


Evidence-Based Social Skills Interventions for Children with Autism: A Meta-Analysis
Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, by Wang, P., and Spillane A., published in 2009, summarized Jan 15, 2010

Video modeling may be the most useful of all social skills therapies for children with autism.

The authors reviewed the results of 38 studies that measured how well social skills therapies worked on autism symptoms. The authors looked at the results of the studies and compared the results to see which type of social skill therapy worked best in children with autism and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The authors said that the data from the studies best support the use of Social Stories, peer-mediated social skills therapy, and video modeling. Use of these three techniques can be thought of as “evidence-based.” Use of video modeling gave the best results in many studies.


Exogenous Melatonin for Sleep Problems in Individuals with Intellectual Disability: A Meta-Analysis
Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, by Braam, W., Smits MG, Didden R., Korailius H., VanGeijlswijk IM, and Curfs LMG, published in 2009, summarized Jul 17, 2009

Melatonin therapy may be helpful for people with autism who have trouble sleeping.

This review article compared results of nine different studies of melatonin and sleep problems in people with autism and other neurological disorders. All nine drug therapy studies were randomized and placebo-controlled. The studies looked at a total of 183 people. Melatonin therapy decreased the time it took to fall asleep. Melatonin also decreased the number of times people woke up during the night, and increased how long they slept by almost an hour. The authors said that some studies showed no effects of melatonin therapy, and it may be that melatonin may not be helpful for people with some specific types of intellectual disabilities. They said the conflicting results may be due to poor design of some of those studies.


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