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Recent years have brought questions about the ABA model. When Lovaas protégé Tristram Smith tried to replicate the 1987 findings in a 2000 study, he got a more modest success rate on academic measures and virtually no gains in social behavior. Others, meanwhile, have devised new ways of working with autistic kids. One of the best known was developed by child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan, who spent 15 years studying infant development at the National Institute of Mental Health. His method, called DIR (developmental, individual-difference, relationship based), has as its premise the idea that an exchange of emotional signals...
While the majority of U.S. programs for autistic children are based on ABA techniques, DIR has made inroads, and many programs now mix elements of both. How do the techniques differ in practice? To find out, TIME visited two schools, each a model for one school of thought...
...Alpine, every goal, every lesson, every response is carefully documented in binders that track each child's progress. That is the rigorous heart of ABA, explains executive director Bridget Taylor, who co-founded the school in 1988. "I'm a scientist-practitioner; I need data," says Taylor, a certified ABA therapist with a Ph.D. in psychology. The binder for Jodi DiPiazza, 4, is easily seven inches thick, though Jodi has been at Alpine less than a year. Like most other children at the school, she started ABA therapy at home as a toddler...
...Jodi sits quietly at a small table with a teacher. They take turns looking at photos and using a complete sentence to describe the scene ("The girl is riding a bike"). Each correct answer earns Jodi a sticker on a chart; with enough stickers she can choose a reward. ABA was once famous for its M&M rewards, but better programs now tailor positive reinforcement to the child's preferences--a favorite activity, a hug or, in the case of one Alpine student, a packet of ketchup. Though Jodi didn't talk at all until age 3, she speaks well...
Robotic behavior, lack of emotion and inability to use trained skills outside school are some of the shortcomings critics attribute to ABA. A boy who has learned to play Nintendo games at Alpine, for instance, reverts to simply switching the game on and off when at home. Proponents concede certain weak points, but they also note a long record of results. Says Tristram Smith of the University of Rochester: "Anything outside ABA is basically experimental at this point...