The Toronto Partnership for Autism Services uses proven Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI). IBI is an intensive treatment, provided for a minimum of 20 hours per week and delivered through both one-to-one and small group instruction. It requires frequent, direct measurement of the child’s performance and progress with regular updates to the child’s customized plan.
IBI was developed for young children with autism spectrum disorders, based on the scientific principles of the broader field of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). ABA is the science of designing, implementing, and evaluating environmental modifications to produce meaningful changes in behaviour. ABA can be considered as an overall category, which can be applied to many different groups and ages, with IBI being one model of intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders.
IBI is comprehensive in scope, targeting a broad range of developmental areas. It is developmental in sequence, focusing on skills in the order they would tend to appear in typically developing children. IBI is designed to improve key learning skills in the areas of cognitive, language, and social development. In order to do so it is imperative that intervention be provided intensively during children’s best learning periods, typically during a regular daytime schedule.
The goal of Intensive Behavioural Intervention is to increase the developmental trajectory, or rate of learning, for children with autism. Treatment research suggests that up to 40% to 50% of young children may make substantial progress, typically over a 1 to 2 year period. When this goal is achieved, children show clinically significant improvement in cognitive, language, and adaptive functioning, which can be demonstrated at regular intervals throughout their intervention. Children have different outcomes with IBI. While some children make very good progress, others make slow to minimal progress.