Outcome Study

“Across primarily preschool programs, there is a very strong consensus that active engagement in intensive instructional programming for a minimum of 25 hours a week, with full year programming varied according to the child’s chronological age and developmental level is critical.”
The Committee on Educational Interventions for Children with Autism; Catherine Lord and James P McGee, editors (2001).

2002 BIA Outcome Data

In 2002, Program Director and Village Preschool Founder, Monique Bekeschus conducted a study examining the educational placements of former BIA early intervention recipients. The survey concluded that 43% of children who received early intervention programs from BIA from 1997-2001, gained the skills necessary to function in general education placements without support.

2007 BIA Follow-up Data

In 2007, BIA Program Director, Heather Carder conducted a follow up study again using the same population of students in the original (Bekeschus) study in order to assess whether the treatment gains were long-term.

All study participants (in both the original study and follow-up) were BIA clients between the years of 1997 and 2001 who received 15-30 hours per week of Direct Instructional Service (DIS) per week, uninterrupted for 52 weeks per year for a total of 1.5-2 years total. Children were between the ages of 2 and 4.5 at the onset of intervention.

In the original study there were 23 respondents to the outcome survey. The follow up survey yielded 20 parent responses.

Using school placement as the touchstone for the effectiveness of our model, the following graph shows the outcome data from both studies in a comparison format: