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Trajectories of Evidence Based Treatment for School Children with Autism: What’s the Right Level for the Implementation?
Evidence-based practices (EBP) for children with autism are under-used in special-education schools. No research compared child-level versus teacher-level infuences on EBP use, which could guide implementation strategies. We derived longitudinal profles of EBP receipt by children (N=234) in 69 autism-support classrooms, over an academic year. We compared overall impacts of child-level and teacher-level factors on profle membership. Most children received little EBP throughout the year; however substantial subgroups received increasing, and decreasing, doses of EBP. Child-level and teacher-level factors contributed about equally to profle membership. Children’s autism symptoms and verbal ability, teachers’ EBP skills, training/experience, classroom support, class size, and implementation leadership climate predicted profle membership. Early identifcation of treatment profles could facilitate targeted implementation strategies increasing EBP use.