For many years, children with autism had virtually no chance for improvement of their condition. Then came applied behavior analysis, which is so successful that now tens of thousands of children receive these services every year. I just stumbled across this fairly well done media piece on how some kids initially diagnosed with autism are able to become indistinguishable from kids their peers after a few years of ABA work. Although the piece is a bit sensationalized and certainly many kids do not have that good of an outcome, it is remarkable that some do! And that's because of behavior analysis. Behavior analysis is the tradition that ACT and RFT are a part of and several RFT researchers are investigating ways to further improve outcomes for kids undergoing ABA. This video is worth watching:
[[http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2009/04/17/autism-recover/2919/]]