Intensity of supervision and outcome for preschool aged children receiving early and intensive behavioral interventions: A preliminary study

We asked whether intensity of supervision is associated with outcome in preschool aged children with autism (N = 20) who received intensive and early behavioral intervention. Intensity of supervision ranged from 2.9 to 7.8 h per month per child. A significant correlation was found between intensity of supervision and improvement scores in IQ. Thus, intensity of supervision was reliably associated with amount of IQ change between intake and follow-up. These findings add to the existing literature by suggesting that intensity of supervision together with intensity of treatment, treatment method, and pretreatment functioning are variables that may affect outcome for children with autism who receive early and intensive behavioral intervention.