The relative importance of age and IQ as predictors of outcomes in Intensive Behavioral Intervention

Pivotal Response Treatment for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review

“…This variability in outcomes is not unique to PRT and is consistent with results of evaluations of behavioral interventions more generally (Peters-Scheffer et al 2011;Reichow 2012). Research on predictors of outcomes from behavioral interventions suggests that outcomes are related to children's age (e.g., Granpeesheh et al 2009;Perry et al 2013), language proficiency (e.g., Sallows and Graupner 2005), pre-treatment IQ (Perry et al 2013), severity of autism symptoms (e.g., BenItzchak and Zachor 2011), parental stress (Osborne et al 2008;Strauss et al 2012), and parental treatment fidelity (Strauss et al 2012). Research concerning predictors of outcomes of PRT is limited, but a study by Sherer and Schreibman (2005) suggested that response to PRT was predicted by toy contact, approach, and avoidant behaviors, and verbal and nonverbal self-stimulatory behaviors.…”

Mapping the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders in children aged under 7 years in Australia, 2010–2012

“…The early diagnosis of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a critical step in gaining access to early intervention, providing optimal opportunity for developmental benefits by taking advantage of early brain plasticity 1 . The age at which intervention begins has been associated with improved outcomes, with younger children showing greater gains from intensive early intervention 2 , 3 . Although research suggests ASD can be reliably diagnosed by the age of 24 months, 4 , 5 a recent review found that, on average, diagnosis is delayed until 3 years, with the average age at diagnosis ranging from 38 to 120 months across 42 studies conducted across the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, India, Taiwan and Australia 6 …”

Increasing Opportunities for Question-Asking in School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Effectiveness of Staff Training in Pivotal Response Treatment

“…This outcome variability is consistent with the results of a systematic review on PRT (Verschuur et al 2014 ) and evaluations of ABA interventions (e.g., Peters-Scheffer et al 2011 ; Reichow 2012 ; Vivanti et al 2014 ). Behavioral intervention outcomes are associated with child characteristics, for example age, language proficiency, pre-intervention cognitive skills, and autism severity (e.g., Ben-Itzchak and Zachor 2011 ; Perry et al 2013 ; Smith et al 2015 ). However, these characteristics do not seem to explain variability in children’s question-asking skills in the present study, because these characteristics also varied across children who did not benefit from PRT.…”