Ivar Lovaas, the distinguished professor of psychology at UCLA, a pioneer in the research and development of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy to treat children with autism, and the founder of the Lovaas Institute, died on August 2nd at age 83.
We join with everyone else in the field of ABA in acknowledging the huge contribution that Dr. Lovaas made to the development of better educational services for children with autism, and we offer our sincere sympathies to his family and friends and colleagues.
The publication of Dr. Lovaas's landmark study in 1987 demonstrated that nearly half of children with autism who received early, intensive behavioral therapy achieved normal-range IQ scores and were able to attend regular education classrooms by the end of first grade without the help of an aide. Many of those children in the study who did not achieve optimal results still demonstrated marked improvement. This study paved the way to the development of practical, effective therapy based on the collection of objective, measurable data, in contrast to earlier treatment which had been based on theories unsupported by scientific research. Since that time, his work has been validated by independent treatment sites which achieved comparable outcomes when they were trained in his methods.
Many of the misunderstandings of Applied Behaviour Analysis in Ireland arise from some people's mistaken view that Dr. Lovaas's study defined ABA. Instead, The Lovaas Model involved intensive (up to 40 hours per week) one-to-one work, concentrating on Discrete Trial Teaching. This resulted in some people taking a negative view of the hard work involved on the part of both tutor and pupil in Dr. Lovaas's program. It also caused some to associate ABA with Discrete Trials, overlooking the broad definition of the science of Applied Bahaviour Analysis. We hope that these misunderstandings of both Dr. Lovaas, his model and the science of Applied Behaviour Analysis will be recified over time.