Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) Intervention on Language Skills in Autism Children

In recent years, intervention results of children with autism disorder have been examined in many studies. One of the effective interventions for this group of children is Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) method. In number of clinical trials and single-subject studies have been measured the effectiveness of this method on children with autism, that results are different. Therefore, the use of meta-analysis is necessary. The purpose of current study is examining the effect size of ABA on improvement the language skills in autism children by meta-analysis method and with collecting and integrating the results different studies. 10 studies accepted in methodology were collected and analyzed through meta-analysis. The research tool was meta-analysis checklist. Effect size for each study was manual calculated. The mean of effect size of ABA intervention were 1/66 (p≤ 0/001) on expressive language, 1/52 (p≤ 0/001) on receptive language and 1/21 (p≤ 0/001) on composite language skills in autistic children, according to Cohen table is high. Findings of this meta-analysis support of effectiveness ABA on improvement language skills in autism children.