Per a court order, HHS is required to restore this website to its version as of 12:00 AM on January 29, 2025. Information on this page may be modified and/or removed in the future subject to the terms of the court’s order and implemented consistent with applicable law. Any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from truth. The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology due to the harms and divisiveness it causes. This page does not reflect reality and therefore the Administration and this Department reject it.

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.

Read more about this resource

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.