Who is Lovaas?
O. Ivar Lovaas was a professor of Psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). His early work involved teaching language to non-verbal, autistic children. He did this using principles derived from Learning Theory, using what is now commonly called Applied Behaviour Analysis. He later used a similar but more refined approach to teaching a range of functional (academic and social) skills to pre-schoolers with Autism. Almost half of the children who were treated achieved normal levels of functioning and the rest showed significant improvement. Prof. Lovaas, who is originally from Norway, has now established the Lovaas Institute for early intervention in Autism in Los Angeles.
