U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

About this resource:

Systematic Review

Source: The Cochrane Collaborative

Last Reviewed: May 2018

Workgroups: Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Workgroup

In this Cochrane systematic review, the Cochrane Collaborative found weak evidence that early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) is effective for young children with autism. The studies included in the review compared EIBI to generic special education services for children who were younger than 6 years when they started treatment. The studies assessed children’s 

  • Adaptive behavior
  • Intelligence 
  • Spoken language 
  • Ability to understand what people are saying

Researchers did not find differences between interventions in severity of autism symptoms or problem behavior.

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Objectives related to this resource (1)

Increase the proportion of children with autism spectrum disorder who receive special services by age 4 years — MICH‑18
Getting worse

Suggested Citation

1.

Reichow, B., Barton, E. E., Boyd, B. A., & Hume, K. (2012). Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) for young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2010 (10). DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD009260.pub3.