Our Research

UKYAP has undertaken a number of research studies, including examining outcome for children we work with:

UK YAP Outcome Research

Hayward, D., Eikeseth, S., Gale, C., & Morgan, S. (2009). Assessing progress during treatment for young children with autism receiving intensive behavioural interventions. Autism, 13 (6), 613 – 633

As part of the UCLA Multi-Site Young Autism Project, UK YAP examined progress of 44 children after one year of treatment in the UK. Results showed children improved significantly on: IQ; Visual-spatial IQ; Language Comprehension; Expressive Language; Social Skills; Motor Skills; and Adaptive Behaviour. Eighty-nine percent of the children made gains in IQ with a mean increase of 16 points after one year of treatment. These findings are consistent with previous studies demonstrating the benefits of EIBI treatment for children with autism and related developmental disorders.

Smith, D.P., Hayward, D.W., Gale, C.M., Eikeseth, S. & Klintwall, L. (2019). Treatment Gains from Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention are Maintained 10 years later. Behavior Modification.

This study reports outcome in adolescence for some of the children who received EIBI with UKYAP. Nineteen children, who received two years of EIBI starting at a mean age of 2-years-and-11-months were assessed 10 years after EIBI ended. Results showed the participants significantly increased their cognitive and adaptive standard scores during the two years of EIBI, and that these gains were maintained at follow-up, 10 years after the EIBI had ended. Participants also showed a significant reduction in autism symptoms between intake and follow-up. At follow-up, none of the participants had received any additional psychiatric diagnoses, and none were taking any psychotropic medication. Results indicate that treatment gains achieved in EIBI are maintained into adolescence.

Other Research Conducted by UKYAP Staff

Almas, I. K., Smith, D.P., Eldevik, S. & Eikeseth, S. (2022). Emergent intraverbal and reverse intraverbal behavior following listener training in children with autism spectrum disorder. The Analysis of Verbak Behavior, doi.ord/10.1007/s40616-021-00164-3.

Eikeseth,S. and Hayward, D., (2009) The Discrimination of Object Names and Object Sounds In Children with Autism: A Procedure for Teaching Verbal Comprehension. Journal of Behaviour Analysis vol 42 pages 807-812.

Eikeseth, S., Hayward, D., Gale, C., Gitlesen, J-P., & Eldevik, S. (2009). Intensity of supervision and outcome for preschool aged children receiving early and intensive behavioral interventions: A preliminary study. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 3, 67-73.

Eikeseth, S., Klintwall, L., Hayward, D. & Gale, C. (2015). Stress in parents of children with autism participating in early and intensive behavioral intervention. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 16, 112-120.

Eikeseth, S. & Smith, D. P. (2013). An analysis of verbal stimulus control in intraverbal behaviour: Implications for practice and applied research. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 29, 125-135.

Eikeseth, S. & Smith, D. P. (2021). Early intensive behavioral intervention and applied behavior analysis. In S. von Tetzchner, X. Su and F. Xiao (Eds.), Development, assessment, and intervention of autism spectrum disorders in childhood: International and Chinese perpectives (pp. 204-228). Beijing, China: Guangming Daily Press.

Eikeseth, S., Smith, D. P., & Klintwall, L. (2014). Discrete trial teaching and discrimination training. In P. Sturmey, J. Tarbox, D. Dixon, & J. L. Matson (Eds.), Handbook of Early Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Research, Practice and Policy (pp. 293-324). New York: Springer.

Eldevik, S., Arnesen, L., Sakseide, K.M., & Gale, C. (2019). Effekten av Forsinket Forsterkning hos barn med Autismespekterforstyrrelse. Norsk Tidsskrift for Atferdsanalyse, 46, 45-54. (Translation: The Effect of Delayed Reinforcement in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Norwegian Journal of Behavioral Analysis).

Gale, C.M., Eikeseth, S., & Rudrud, E. (2011). Functional assessment and behavioural intervention for eating difficulties in children with autism: a study conducted in the natural environment using parents and ABA tutors as therapists. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(10).

Gale, C.M., Eikeseth, S., & Klintwall, L. (2019). Children with Autism Show Atypical Preference for Non-social Stimuli. Nature: Scientific Reports, 9, 10355

Hayward, D. W., Gale, C. M., & Eikeseth, S. (2009). Intensive behavioural intervention for young children with autism: A research-based service model. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 3, 571-580.

Holmes, E., Eikeseth, S., and Schulze., K.A., (2015) Teaching Individuals with Autism Receptive Labelling Skills involving Conditional Discriminations: A Comparison of Mass Trial and Intermixing before Random Rotation, Random Rotation Only and Combined Blocking. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders vol 11, pages 1-12.

Lanovaz, M. J., Fletcher, S. E. & Rapp, J. T. (2009). Identifying stimuli that alter immediate and subsequent levels of vocal stereotypy: A further analysis of functionally matched stimulation. Behavior Modification, 33, 682-704.

Lanovaz, M.J., Rapp, J.T., & Fletcher, S.E. (2010) Expanding Functional Analysis of Automatically Reinforced Behaviour Using a Three-Component Multiple-Schedule. European Journal of Behaviour Analysis 11: Pages 17-27.

Morgan, M. A. (2007). A comparison of teaching methodology: A study to determine the most effective method of teaching, maintaining and transferring skills. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 8, 277-288.

Smith, D. P., Eikeseth, S., Fletcher, S. E., Montebelli, L., Smith, H. R., & Taylor, J.C. (2016). Emergent intraverbal forms may occur as a result of listener training for children with autism. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 32, 27-37. doi: 10.1007/s40616-016-0057-3

Stangeland, L. A., Smith, D. P., & Rapp, J. T. (2012). An evaluation of the effects of experimenter control of objects on individuals’ engagement in object stereotypy. Behaviour Modification, 36 (2), 182-198.