Ivar Lovaas, 1927-2010

4Aug/102

Ivar Lovaas, 1927-2010

O. Ivar Lovaas, the clinical researcher responsible for the development of teaching procedures that are at the base of nearly all effective therapies for children with autism, passed away 2 August 2010. Professor Lovaas, who was born in Norway in 1927, was among a pioneering group of scholars who studied the use of principles based on behavioral psychology in treating deviant child behavior. Along with others, some of whom he numbered as co-authors (e.g., Donald M. Baer, Sidney W. Bijou), he can rightfully be considered a founder of applied behavior analysis.

Professor Lovaas began his academic career at the University of Washington where Moncrieff H. Smith Jr. supervised his doctoral dissertation. He completed his degree in 1958 and continued working at Washington for several years. His dissertation—a study of the relationships among learning and tension, anxiety, and muscle use—and other early studies (e.g., effects of watching violent video on aggressive behavior) did not presage his substantial contributions in the study of autism.

In the early 1960s, Professor Lovaas accepted an appointment at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) where he continued his behavioral studies of child development but soon began to study children with autism and childhood schizophrenia. Although he briefly considered moving his research operation to Oregon in the 1970s, Professor Lovaas stayed at UCLA throughout the remainder of his career, retiring in 2003. He also founded and directed the Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention (LIFE).

Collaborating initially with James Q. Simmons and later with many students who have become prominent researchers in their own right, Professor Lovaas conducted extensive research about autism. Early studies examined punishment procedures for reducing self-injurious behavior and shaping procedures for promoting language. As the work progressed, these procedures were refined into a system for teaching that employed frequent repetition of brief activities—discrete trials—with detailed monitoring of students' responses. Perhaps the most widely known study from this era is the 1987 report describing the functioning of children treated with the discrete-trials methods: "Behavioral treatment and normal educational and intellectual functioning in young autistic children."

The extensive work on systematic instructional procedures for teaching language, social interaction, and other skills led to the publication of Teaching Developmentally Disabled Children: The ME Book, a book that has guided many people's efforts to help children with substantial behavior problems. A long-anticipated revision of "The Me Book," Teaching Individuals with Developmental Delays: Basic Intervention Techniques, appeared in 2003.

Professor Lovaas' work has been celebrated by many. He received the Distinguished Research Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association (APA) as well as the Edgar Doll Award from APA's Division 33 (Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities). The Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis awarded him its award for Effective Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media to Professor Lovaas.

Reference

Lovaas, O. (1987). Behavioral treatment and normal educational and intellectual functioning in young autistic children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 3-9. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.55.1.3.

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