EIBI

Question 1

what is EIBI?

Answer 1

early intensive behavioural intervention
- based on applied behaviour analysis (ABA) and developed by lovaas

Question 2

what happens during EIBI?

Answer 2

structured, intensive behavioural therapy for young children (under 5) with 20-40 hours per week of one-to-one therapy over 2-3 weeks
- it breaks skills into small steps with positive reinforcement for correct responses

Question 3

what does EIBI focus on?

Answer 3

communication, self care, social skills, acedemic skills and reducing problematic behaviours

Question 4

what are the key features?

Answer 4

• uses discrete trial training - repeated teaching trials with prompts and reinforcement
• tailored to each child’s needs
• requires involvement from therapists, teachers and parents

Question 5

what is a strength?

Answer 5

there is strong evidence supporting it:
- lovaas (1987): 47% of EIBI children reached normal functioning vs 2% in control
- reichow et al (2012): meta analysis found significant improvements in IQ, communication and social behaviour

the early intervention capitalises on brain plasticity during early development

Question 6

what is the ethical weakness?

Answer 6

seen by some as trying to make autistic children indistinguishable from neurotypicals
- this can be supressing individuality and causing stress (masking)

Question 7

what is the weakness that it is expensive?

Answer 7

requires trained professionals and long-term commitment and may not be accessuble to all families