After providing a brief definition of the developmental disorder of autism, this paper examines the ways in which behavioral analysis or behavioral assessment has been used as a treatment strategy for this syndrome in children. Behavioral analysis sets aside questions of the complex and opaque etiology of this syndrome to attempt to provide effective treatment by altering the environment of autistic individuals so that they can in turn control their systems. This is a substantial shift in emphasis from earlier methods of treatment that attempted to directly affect or to control the autistic individual without altering environment stimuli in necessary ways. The literature on this form of treatment is reviewed to demonstrate that researchers believe such behavioral analyses are by far the most effective ways known currently to improve the quality of life for autistic individuals and to mainstream them. A number of scales have been developed to determine the effectiveness of such treatment strategies and the literature assessing these tests is reviewed here.
Autism is one of the most severe and disruptive of childhood disorders. With both genetic and environmental elements at work in it, autism (which affects boys at least three times more often than girls and is found in all races and throughout the world) is a communicative disorder distinguished by a number of often dramatic and sometimes even violent symptoms. The autistic individual's behavior is marked by significant withdrawal from the world and from the social space of other humans as well as by a number of self stimulatory behaviors that may appear bizarre to the observer and are often self destructive. Paluszny (1979) bluntly summarizes the syndrome as being characterized by "a lack of social relationship, a lack of communication abilities, persistent compulsive rituals, and resistance to change" (p. 1).
The etiology of autism has remained difficult for researche...